US to deploy more troops to Gulf following attacks in Saudi Gulf tensions

US to deploy troops to Saudi Arabia and UAE

The Pentagon says the US will deploy additional troops and military equipment to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to beef up security, as President Donald Trump has at least for now decided against any immediate military strike on Iran in response to the attack on the Saudi oil industry TRT World reports.

Defence Secretary Mark Esper says this is a first step, and he is not ruling out additional moves down the road. He says it's a response to requests from the Saudis and the UAE to help improve their air and missile defences.

Esper and General Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said details of the deployments will be determined over the coming days.

Saudi Aramco sees full oil production by end Sept

Saudi state oil company Aramco said it will bring back by end September full crude output at Abqaiq and Khurais, the two oil facilities damaged by attacks last weekend that US officials have blamed on Iran.

Aramco is shipping equipment from the United States and Europe to rebuild the damaged facilities, Fahad Abdulkarim, Aramco's general manager for the southern area oil operation, told reporters on a tour organised by the company to the two sites east of the capital Riyadh.

Reuters reporters were shown repair work under way at both locations, with cranes erected around burnt-out stabilisation columns, which form part of oil-gas separation units.

"We are working 24/7," Abdulkarim said in Khurais. “This is a beehive."

Trump says new sanctions on Iran

President Donald Trump says his administration is imposing additional sanctions on Iran following last weekend's attack on Saudi oil facilities, which the administration has blamed on Iran.

Speaking in the Oval Office on Friday during a meeting with Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, Trump said, "We have just sanctioned the Iranian national bank."

The US has already applied an arsenal of sanctions on Iran since the administration withdrew in November from the 2015 nuclear deal.

Still, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin says the latest sanctions demonstrate the US is continuing a maximum pressure campaign, asserting "we have now cut off all funds to Iran."

Saudi vows quick recovery despite damage to oil plant

Saudi Arabia vowed on Friday oil production will be quickly restored as it revealed extensive damage to the Khurais oilfield following weekend aerial strikes, which have been blamed on Iran by Washington.

"We will have production at the same level as before the strike by the end of this month ⁠— we are coming back stronger," asserted Fahad al Abdulkareem, a general manager for Saudi Aramco.

He said there were as many as 300 people on-site at the time of the aerial strikes early on Saturday morning.

"The whole thing ... happened, with four strikes and explosions, with no single injury to any [staff]," he said, as he inspected damage.

Saudi Arabia shows attack site it says Iran hit

Saudi Arabia has taken journalists to the site of a missile-and-drone attack on a facility at the heart of the kingdom's oil industry.

Journalists arrived on Friday to Buqayq in Saudi Arabia's Eastern Province, home to the Abqaiq oil processing facility.

Friday prayer leader says Iran is greater than its borders

Iran is not limited to a "geographical location" as the Iran-backed factions around the region are "all Iran" now, high-ranking cleric Ayatollah Ahmad Alamolhoda said on Friday.

"Iran, today, is not only Iran and not limited to a geographical location. Iraq's Hashd al Shaabi, Lebanon's Hezbollah, Yemen's Ansarullah, Syria's National Defence Forces, Palestine's Islamic jihad and Hamas are all Iran," the semi-official news agency ISNA quoted the ultra-conservative Alamolhoda as saying during a Friday prayer sermon.

Kuwait raises security levels at ports

Kuwait says it has raised security levels at its ports given ongoing regional tensions following an attack on Saudi Arabia.

The state-run KUNA news agency reported the decision on Friday, quoting Kuwait's minister of commerce and industry as making the announcement.

Khaled al Roudhan said it affected both commercial ports and oil facilities.

Iran oil minister inspects cybersecurity at key refinery

Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh discussed cybersecurity and production bottlenecks during a visit to a major refinery and petrochemical plants on Iran's Gulf coast on Friday, the official news agency IRNA reported.

"Investigating the refinery's civil defence situation and related topics is among the goals ... of the oil minister's one-day trip to Bandar Abbas," IRNA reported.

Iran's civil defence body is in charge of issues including cybersecurity.

IRNA said Zanganeh inspected several petrochemical plants and the 350,000-barrels per day Persian Gulf Star refinery, which helped Iran declare self-sufficiency in gasoline after the inauguration of its third phase in February.

US military to present options on Iran

The Pentagon will present a broad range of military options to President Trump on Friday as he considers how to respond to what administration officials say was an unprecedented Iranian attack on Saudi Arabia's oil industry.

In a White House meeting, the Republican president will be presented with a list of potential air strike targets inside Iran, among other possible responses, and he will be warned that military action against the Islamic Republic could escalate into war, according to US officials familiar with the discussions who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Houthis accuse Saudi-led coalition of 'dangerous escalation'

The Yemeni Houthi movement on Friday accused the Saudi-led coalition of a dangerous escalation of the situation around Hudaida after coalition forces attacked targets north of the port city.

The actions threatened a UN-brokered ceasefire accord in the Red Sea port, Houthi spokesman Mohammed Abdul Salam said.

The Saudi-led coalition on Friday launched a military operation north of Hudaida against what it described as "legitimate military targets."

A coalition spokesman said attacks had destroyed four sites used to assemble remote-controlled boats and sea mines to help protect the freedom of maritime navigation.

"The concentrated raids on Hudaida constitute a dangerous escalation that could blow up the Sweden agreement," the Houthi spokesman said on Twitter. "The coalition will bear the responsibility of this escalation which is also a test to the United Nations."

Top Iran commander threatens broad response to any US plots

A senior Revolutionary Guard commander said on Friday Iran would respond from the Mediterranean to the Indian Ocean against any US plots, the state news agency IRNA reported, amid heightened tensions after attacks on Saudi oil infrastructure.

"If the Americans think of any plots, the Iranian nation will respond from the Mediterranean, to the Red Sea and to the Indian Ocean," said General Yahya Rahim Safavi, a senior adviser to Iran’s supreme leader, according to IRNA.

Iran's Zarif questions US coalition for 'peaceful resolution'

Iran's foreign minister on Friday questioned US plans for a coalition for a "peaceful resolution" in the Middle East while listing repeated Iranian diplomatic initiatives.

"Coalition for Peaceful Resolution?," Mohammad Javad Zarif said in a statement on Twitter, and listed eight diplomatic initiatives by Iran since 1985, including a peace plan for Yemen in 2015, and a regional non-aggression pact for the Gulf region proposed earlier this year.

In another tweet, Zarif accused the United States of valuing oil more than people in the Middle East, before leaving for New York for the annual gathering of world leaders at the United Nations next week, state media said.

"Arab blood vs. Arab oil / A primer on U.S. policy: 4 yrs of indiscriminate bombardment of Yemen, 100,000 dead Yemenis, 20M malnourished Yemenis, 2.3M cholera cases, carte (blanche) for culprits," Zarif tweeted.

"Retaliatory Yemeni strike on oil storage tanks = unacceptable "act of war," he added, in reference to September 14 attacks on Saudi oil infrastructure, which US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called an "act of war" against the world's largest oil exporter.

Zarif left for New York early on Friday, Iranian state TV said, after Iran's UN mission confirmed that the United States has issued visas allowing President Hassan Rouhani and Zarif to attend the United Nations General Assembly.