Gidley: The president is being 'cautious' on Iran

(17 Sep 2019) FOR CLEAN VERSION SEE STORY NUMBER: apus123613 Deputy White House Press Secretary Hogan Gidley says the president is being 'cautious' when it comes blaming Iran for the devastating weekend attack on a Saudi oil field and the world's largest crude oil processing plants. The attack knocked out 5.7 million barrels of crude oil production per day, or about 5% of the world's daily production. It also took out 2 billion cubic feet of daily gas production. The attack early Saturday on the kingdom's facilities in the east was claimed as multiple drone strikes by Iranian-allied Houthi rebels in Yemen. Saudi Arabia, however, says the attack did not come from Yemen and said initial investigations show Iranian weapons were used. The kingdom, though, has not yet said where the attack was launched from or what kind of weapons were involved. The U.S has made similar allegations, going so far as to say the attack may have been launched from Iran itself or nearby Iraq, where Iran has powerful proxy militias on the ground. Iran has denied the charges. Saudi Arabia on Tuesday called on the international community "to shoulder its responsibility in condemning the perpetrators" and "clearly confronting" those behind the attack.   Current tensions stem from President Donald Trump's decision to pull the U.S. out of the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers. He also re-imposed and escalated sanctions on Iran that sent the country's economy into freefall, including targeting its oil exports. There had been reports about a possible meeting between Trump and his Iranian counterpart, Hassan Rouhani, during the upcoming U.N. General Assembly next week in New York. Trump declared Monday it "looks" like Iran was behind the explosive attack on the Saudi oil facilities. But he stressed that military retaliation was not yet on the table in response to the strike against a key U.S. Mideast ally. Trump, alternating between aggressive and nonviolent reactions, said the U.S. could respond "with an attack many, many times larger" but also "I'm not looking at options right now." Earlier, he had said the U.S. was "locked and loaded." He also said the impact of oil production shortages would not be significant on the U.S., which is a net energy exporter. Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter: https://twitter.com/AP_Archive Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/APArchives Google+: https://plus.google.com/b/102011028589719587178/+APArchive​ Tumblr: https://aparchives.tumblr.com/​​ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/APNews/ You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/000cb0d3a0b3ba04e5a98f4e74e7d95d