Smoke and flames rise at the site of airstrikes on an oil depot in Tehran (Image: Getty)
The raging conflict between Iran and the US and Israel could spill out into all-out war in the Middle East after Saudi Arabia threatened to join the fighting directly. The nation’s foreign minister heavily criticised Iran following more overnight attacks by the Islamic Republic on neighbouring countries in the region.
Saudi Prince Faisal bin Farhan said after a meeting between foreign ministers of the Gulf Arab states that his country would use every lever to stop the missiles and drones coming from Iran, including not ruling out armed intervention.
He said: « The attacks on my country and on my neighboring countries that are not involved in this conflict, that’s all I’m interested in.
« We’re going to use every lever we have, political, economic, diplomatic and otherwise, to get these attacks to stop.”
Prince Faisal also highlighted Iranian attacks continued last night (Thursday) on the Saudi capital Riyadh despite it hosting the meeting of Arab leaders. The prince noted: “I cannot see it as coincidental, that’s the clearest signal of how Iran feels about diplomacy. It tries to pressure its neighbours, and that’s not going to work.”
Read more: GB News grinds to a halt for breaking Donald Trump bombshell
Read more: Iran hangs teen athlete as mass execution warning issued
Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper meets with her Saudi counterpart Faisal bin Farhan Al-Saud (Image: PA)
Iran hit a Saudi refinery on the Red Sea and set Qatari liquefied natural gas facilities and two Kuwaiti oil refineries ablaze, sending international oil and gas prices soaring on Thursday.
The strikes followed an Israeli attack on South Pars, the Iranian part of the world’s largest gas field, the previous day.
US President Donald Trump said that Israel would not attack South Pars again, but warned on social media that if Iran continued striking Qatar’s energy infrastructure, the US would retaliate and “massively blow up the entirety” of the field.
Brent crude oil, the international standard, spiked to as high as $118 a barrel, up more than 60% since Israel and the United States started the war on February 28 with strikes on Iran.
A ship was set ablaze off the coast of the United Arab Emirates and another was damaged off Qatar.
Explosion in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia (Image: @ariel_oseran/X)
During a visit to Saudi Arabia last week British Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper accused Russia and Iran of attempting to « hijack the global economy » as Tehran continued to blockade a key oil shipping route.
Iran’s new supreme leader has vowed to continue attacking shipping in the Strait of Hormuz in retaliation for ongoing US-Israeli strikes on his country.
Speaking to reporters during a visit to Saudi Arabia, the Foreign Secretary linked the threat from Iran to that from Russia, a key ally of Tehran.
She said: « We have seen these links between Russia and Iran over an extended period of time.
« We’re seeing it in terms of technology, we see it in terms of the approach, we see it in terms of these kinds of tactics, and we see it in terms of the way these two states try to support each other and try to benefit together from attempting to hijack the global economy. »
Source link
