Donald Trump has approved the deployment of US troops to strengthen Saudi air defenses following the attacks on the Saudi oil group Aramco, which Washington blames Iran.
"At the request of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, the president has approved the deployment of US forces, which will be defensive by nature, and mainly focused on the air force and missile defense," announced Friday, September 20, US Defense Minister Mark Esper.
The deployment will involve a moderate number of troops and will be mainly defensive, the Pentagon said. General Joseph Dunford, United States Chief of Staff, said the deployment would not involve thousands of soldiers, without providing more details.
New sanctions against Iran
Donald Trump also announced on Friday the introduction of sanctions against the Central Bank of Iran, nearly a week after the attacks, which deprived Saudi Arabia of half of its production capacity and led to a sudden surge in prices. of oil. "These are sanctions at the highest level," he said in the Oval Office.
At his side, the Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin explained that it was to target "the last source of income of the Central Bank of Iran", already on the US blacklist, but also the National Development Fund, "that is, their sovereign fund that will be cut off" from the US banking system. "This means that there will be no more money going to the Revolutionary Guards," the elite army of Iranian power, "to finance terrorism," he assured.
Whole sections of the Iranian economy, from its financial system to oil exports subject to a strict embargo, are subject to US sanctions.
Mike Pompeo reiterated in a statement that "all the evidence pointed to Iran, and only Iran" as responsible for the attacks in Saudi Arabia. Ryad on Friday revealed for the first time to the press the extent of the damage to its oil facilities, a "sophisticated aggression in its design and shameless in its execution," according to the US Secretary of State.
For the governor of the Iranian Central Bank, Abdolnasser Hemmati, these new punitive measures "show how" the Americans "can not find leverage against Iran," which denies leading these attacks.
Yemen's Houthi rebels, who claimed responsibility for the offensive, announced plans to halt all attacks on Saudi Arabia as part of a peace initiative to end a five-year conflict.
With AFP and Reuters