US considers Iran military action

The United States is “considering a full range of options” as the bitter fallout continues after two oil tankers were attacked in the Middle East.

Speaking on Face The Nation on CBS, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said a military response was “of course” one of the options being looked at.

“The United States is considering a full range of options. We have briefed the President a couple of times, we’ll continue to keep him updated. We are confident that we can take a set of actions that can restore deterrence which is our mission set,” Mr Pompeo said.

“Of course” he said when asked if that included a military response.

“The President will consider everything we need to do to make sure, right? But what’s the President said? We don’t want Iran to get a nuclear weapon,” he said.

“President Trump has said very clearly, he doesn’t want to go to war.”

It comes as Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince has lashed out at Iran following the attacks on two oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman — accusing the Islamic republic of showing disrespect and warning he “won’t hesitate” to tackle threats to his nation.

Prince Mohammed bin Salman joined the United States in accusing its bitter rival Iran of being behind the attacks on ships travelling near the Strait of Hormuz, a vital trade route for Arabian energy exports.

“We do not want a war in the region … But we won’t hesitate to deal with any threat to our people, our sovereignty, our territorial integrity and our vital interests,” he said in an interview with a Saudi-owned newspaper.

“The Iranian regime did not respect the presence of the Japanese prime minister as a guest in Tehran and responded to his (diplomatic) efforts by attacking two tankers, one of which was Japanese.”

Mr Pompeo revealed he was reaching out to foreign leaders to frame alleged Iranian attacks in a Middle East oil shipping route as a problem for the world at large, especially for Asian countries vitally dependent on that oil.

Mr Pompeo, speaking to Fox News and CBS on Sunday, emphasised the US international outreach in the wake of what the US says were Iranian attacks on Thursday on two oil tankers near the Strait of Hormuz.

“I made a bunch of phone calls yesterday. I’ll make a whole bunch more calls today. The world needs to unite,” Mr Pompeo said.

However, he did not elaborate what kind of action the Trump administration envisioned.
 

“We are going to work to build out a set of countries that have deep vested interest in keeping that strait open to help us do that,” Mr Pompeo added.

That echoed comments from acting Defence Secretary Patrick Shanahan this past week when he said the US goal was to “build international consensus to this international problem”.

Iran has denied being involved in the attacks and accused America of promoting an “Iranophobic” campaign against it.

Pressed on whether any new US military deployment to the region was possible, Mr Pompeo said that “of course” remained among the options President Donald Trump may consider to keep shipping safe through the narrow strait, a strategic choke point for oil shipments from the Middle East.

Mr Trump last year withdrew the US from an international agreement, signed in 2015 by President Barack Obama, to limit Iran’s nuclear program.

He has reinstated economic sanctions and recently ended waivers that allowed some countries to continue buying Iranian oil.
 

That has deprived Iran of oil income and has coincided with what US officials said was a surge in intelligence pointing to Iranian preparations for attacks against American forces and interests in the Gulf region.

The US has accelerated the deployment of the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier battle group to the region, sent four nuclear-capable B-52 bombers to Qatar and bolstered its defences in the region by deploying more Patriot air defence systems.

Some European allies have called for a careful investigation of responsibility, worried that Mr Trump was escalating tensions with a country he has long called a top US enemy.

Mr Pompeo stressed the US got relatively little of its energy supplies through the strait, which lies between the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman.

The US Energy Information Administration says 16 per cent of US petroleum imports came from the Persian Gulf countries in 2018.

By contrast, about 80 per cent of oil through the shipping passage supplies powerful countries in Asia, including China, Japan, India and South Korea.

Those countries had skin in the game, Mr Pompeo said.

“I’m confident that when they see the risk — the risk of their own economies and their own people and outrageous behaviour of the Islamic Republic of Iran, they will join us in this,” Mr Pompeo said.

He added intelligence officials had “lots of data, lots of evidence” that Iran was responsible.

Pressed for specifics, Mr Pompeo pointed to grainy black-and-white footage already released by the US.

American officials say the footage shows Iranian Revolutionary Guard troops removing an unexploded mine from a Japanese tanker.

The tanker’s crew gave an apparently different account, saying “flying objects” targeted the vessel. Mr Pompeo said the administration had shared the video and other unspecified evidence with Germany and other nations.

Asked if the US had a credibility problem with allies worried Mr Trump could be seeking a pretext to move against Iran, the secretary of state said, “We’re not selling anything. These are simple facts.”

— with wires