S. Arabia forces down drones after Iran vows to target oil resources

2026-03-13 - 01:44

Iran has unleashed waves of drone and missile strikes against neighbouring states hosting US military assets, including Saudi Arabia. (EPA Images pic) RIYADH: Saudi forces intercepted more than two dozen drones Friday after Iran vowed to attack oil resources in the Middle East and said it would maintain a chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz that has sent crude prices soaring. Israel also came under attack early Friday from missiles launched by Iran, with the Israeli military saying its air defences were working to intercept them. The International Energy Agency has warned that the Middle East war could lead to “the largest supply disruption” in the industry’s history, but US President Donald Trump wrote on social media that defeating Iran’s “evil empire” was more important than crude prices. Trump has faced intense political pressure as the global economic fallout of the crisis has mounted, and he has given mixed messages as to when the US campaign might end. Iran has unleashed waves of drone and missile strikes against neighbouring states hosting US military assets, including Saudi Arabia, whose defence ministry said Friday that its forces had intercepted a total of 28 drones. The previous day, Iranian security chief Ali Larijani took aim at Trump, saying that the war “cannot be won with a few tweets” and that “we will not relent until making you sorry for this grave miscalculation.” His comments came after Iran’s new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, issued a defiant statement, his first since being appointed Sunday after the death of his father and predecessor Ali Khamenei in a strike. Mojtaba Khamenei, who was reportedly wounded in the strike, has yet to appear publicly since his nomination, and his message calling for vengeance was read by an anchor on state television. “The lever of blocking the Strait of Hormuz must definitely be used,” Khamenei said of the waterway through which a fourth of the world’s seaborne oil trade usually transits. The strait, which also normally accounts for a fifth of the world’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) supplies, lies off Iran and is just 54km wide at its narrowest point. Fuel tanks, airport hit Gulf states have borne the brunt of retaliatory attacks from Iran, which said Thursday that it would “set the region’s oil and gas on fire” if its own energy infrastructure and ports were attacked. With Gulf states slashing production and oil tankers stuck in the Gulf, benchmark oil prices have risen 40% to 50%since the US and Israel attacked Iran on Feb 28, threatening to crimp growth and stoke inflation. Images from Bahrain showed thick smoke rising after a strike on fuel tanks in Muharraq, with residents told to stay inside and close their windows, while drones caused damage again at Kuwait’s international airport and in downtown Dubai. In Iraq, six French soldiers were wounded by a drone attack in the autonomous Kurdistan region in the country’s north, the French military said Thursday. And a US KC-135 refueling aircraft crashed in western Iraq, at least the fourth American military aircraft to be lost in the conflict, after three F-15 jets were downed by friendly fire.