Pompeo: Saudi oil attack an ‘act of war’ by Iran

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Wednesday said the attacks on two oil refineries in Saudi Arabia were “an Iranian attack” that was an “act of war.”

“We were blessed that there were no Americans killed in this attack but any time you have an act of war of this nature, there’s always risk that that could happen,” Pompeo told reporters. “This is an attack of a scale we’ve just not seen before.”

Pompeo told reporters off camera Wednesday that the attack was directed by Iran, and claims by the Houthis rebels in Yemen that they were responsible “doesn’t change the fingerprints of the Ayatollah as having put at risk the global energy supply.”

Intelligence officials are very confident the Houthis do not have access to the weapons used.

“These line attack cruise missiles we have never seen there and we think we’ve seen most everything,” he said. “So the intelligence community has high confidence that these were not weapons that would have been in the possession of the Houthis. That’s probably the most important piece of information.”

Pompeo called the Houthis liars and added that Iran may have influenced them to take responsibility. 

“This is important because you ought not report them as if these truth-tellers, as if these are people who aren’t completely under the boot of the Iranians and who would not, at the direction of the Iranians, lay claim to attacks that they did not engage in. Which clearly was the case here,” he said.

The Saturday attack on Saudi Arabian oil refineries knocked out 5.7 million barrels of oil production per day, adding up to 5 percent of the global daily production.

Tehran denies directing the attack.