• Energy: The attack on the Saudi refinery, another threat to the trade balance and the drivers pocket

The Pentagon chief, Mark Esper , announced Friday the sending of an undetermined number of troops to Saudi Arabia in response to the recent attack on Saudi refineries that Washington and Riyadh blame on Iran .

"The president has approved the dispatch of US forces that will be defensive in nature and will focus primarily on air and missile defense," Esper told a news conference after a meeting at the White House with Donald Trump.

The "greatest sanctions" ever imposed on a country

President Trump also announced sanctions against the Iranian National Bank , considered "the largest" ever imposed on a country, at a time of acute tensions between Washington and Tehran. "We have come to sanction the National Bank of Iran," Trump told reporters, calling the measures "the greatest sanctions ever imposed against a country . "

These sanctions are imposed after attacks on oil facilities in Saudi Arabia over the weekend, whose responsibility the United States attributes to Iran, while Tehran denies it.

The Treasury Department said in a statement that the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) took action against the Central Bank of Iran and against the National Development Fund of Iran .

Iran, which denies being behind the attacks , responded to the sanctions on Friday and said they demonstrate Washington’s null influence, according to state news agency IRNA.

"The sanctions of the United States government against the central bank show again its zero capacity to influence against Iran," said the governor of the Iranian Central Bank, Abdolnaser Hemmati .

The weekend's attacks, which halved Saudi Arabia's oil production, were claimed by the Houthi rebels of Yemen , a Shiite group that is confronted with the Saudi kingdom for their participation in a coalition that supports the Yemeni government In the civil war.

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  • Iran
  • U.S
  • Saudi Arabia
  • Donald Trump

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