Saudi forces down drones after Iran vows to target oil resources

March 13 ------ Saudi forces intercepted more than two dozen drones 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 defenses 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 neighboring states hosting US military assets, including Saudi Arabia, whose defense 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 54 kilometers wide at its narrowest point.

Source: news.abs-cbn.com