Protecting Saudi Arabia; excuse for US military presence in region

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

Tehran, Sept 21, IRNA -- "Sending US additional forces to protect Saudi Arabia", "Who Owns the Cruise Missile whose picture released?", and "a media disaster" for Saudi Arabia with the Ministry of Defense press conference!" are among the most important headlines that domestic news sites have had during the past 72 hours.

"Asre Iran" news website wrote in a report that the US announcement of the deployment of military units to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates is the first response by the US government to last week's attacks on Saudi Aramco oil facilities, which has cut more than half of Saudi Arabia's daily export capacity.

The United States and Saudi Arabia are pointing the finger of blame at Iran, while Ansarullah of Yemen (the Houthis) has officially claimed responsibility for the attack and have even revealed details of how it was carried out.

The US Department of Defense has described the deployment of the US troops to Saudi Arabia as a first step in responding to a recent attack on Saudi oil facilities.

Another US move was to increase Iran's sanctions, which were implemented again yesterday by the sanctions of the Central Bank and the Bank Melli of Iran; sanctions that, according to Islamic Republic officials, symbolize US frustration and no longer have a major impact on the Iranian economy.

Who owns the cruise missile that its picture was released?

Khabar Online in a report on the US' claim about Aramco attack noted that the US officials said earlier that Iraq was not the source of the attacks on Saudi Arabia, so who owns the cruise missile that its picture has been circulated in various media? Has a third party other than Iran and Iraq come into the story and does this cruise belong to him? Read the answer to this question in the report: An unnamed senior US government official in an interview with David Martin, a national security correspondent for CBS News, said, "For some months, Saudi air defenses have focused on attacking the south because of the Yemeni Ansarullah attacks from the south. So the Saudi defense has been ineffective in repelling the attacks from the north."

"The 25 drones and cruise missiles used in the attack on Aramco have been definitely launched from Iran, not Yemen," said Saudi Defense Ministry spokesman Col. Torki al-Maliki in a press interview. "We have no doubt that the attack was from the north and Iran used a combat drone called the 'Delta Wing' in the attack."

"The origin of the attacks on Aramco is from the north or northwest of the oil facilities, indicating that the attack was not from Yemen in the south of Saudi Arabia, but from Iran or Iraq," the Fox News channel quoted the US government as saying. Both are in northern Saudi Arabia. The Trump administration officials confirmed that Iraq was not the source of the attacks," the network said in a statement quoted by Iraqi officials.

Saudi Arabia in his theater for reporters showed a photo of the crashed cruise missile at an exhibition. The picture shows the remains of the struck rocket released by the Gulf News.

Media catastrophe for Saudi Arabia with the press conference of the Ministry of Defense!

Tabnak wrote on Wednesday that Col. Torki al-Maliki, spokesman for the Saudi Ministry of Defense, spoke at a news conference on the recent Ansarullah drone strikes on the Aramco oil facility, and with direct accusations blamed Iran for being directly involved in the attack; a reaction that could be interpreted as a passive reaction with no result. According to the Saudi military, the recent UAV attack used a precise positioning system and GPS.

Many observers see the Saudi Defense Ministry spokesman's news conference as a media disaster for the country - for several reasons;

First: The unfounded rhetoric of the Saudi Ministry of Defense is above all indicating confusion and ambiguity against the attacks. In fact, Riyadh has neither the ability to substantiate its claim nor the details of it. So the statement by the Department of Defense was nothing more than repeated accusations.

Second: The Saudi Ministry of Defense said in a statement that the attack was carried out from the north of the Persian Gulf and possibly from Iranian soil. However, it is not clear exactly where these missiles were fired and the drones were flying. It has also been part of the Saudis' ambiguous rhetoric.

Third: On the other hand, the Saudi Ministry of Defense spokesman did not mention why its air defense system, one of the most advanced defensive systems in the world, could not take action against these attacks. In fact, they did not mention their defensive weakness against the attacks.

These cases illustrate how the Saudi Defense Ministry's news conference resulted from frustration and despair, not its dominance over its military and security situation and the region; therefore, this news conference is a catastrophe for media and defense diplomacy.

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