Saudi Arabia threatens military action against Iran

The “patience” of the Gulf states towards Tehran is not “unlimited,” the Saudi Arabian foreign minister has warned

Iran could face retaliation from its Gulf neighbors for attacks on their energy infrastructure, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal Al Saud has warned, adding that the “patience” of the countries of the region is not “unlimited.”  

Iran must “recalculate” its strategy, Saudi Arabia’s top diplomat said during a news conference on Thursday, hours after the kingdom claimed it had downed four ballistic missiles targeting Riyadh, with some debris falling near a refinery south of the city.

Tehran launched a new wave of retaliatory strikes across the region after infrastructure at the South Pars gas field was damaged in an attack attributed to Israel. The retaliation primarily focused on Qatari energy facilities, which, according to Doha, sustained “extensive damage,” and sent global gas prices skyrocketing. 

“The level of accuracy in some of this targeting – you can see it in our neighbors as well as the kingdom – indicates that this is something that was premeditated, preplanned, preorganized, and well thought out,” Prince Faisal has claimed.

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Tehran’s actions could ultimately merit a military response from Riyadh and other Gulf states, the top diplomat warned. Prince Faisal refused to explicitly outline what exactly “would and would not precipitate a defensive action,” adding it was not a “wise approach to signal to the Iranians.”  

“The patience that is being exhibited is not unlimited. Do they have a day, two, a week? I’m not going to telegraph that,” he said.

Saudi Arabia has repeatedly come under Iranian long-range drone and missile attacks amid the hostilities. The strikes have largely concentrated on US installations in the country, including the Prince Sultan Air Base, a major military facility located in central Saudi Arabia.  

On Thursday, the Saudi Defense Ministry said a drone fell at the SAMREF refinery in the port city of Yanbu on the Red Sea coast, adding that damage was still being assessed. With the Strait of Hormuz all but closed, Saudi Arabia has been rerouting its oil for export via a 1,200-kilometer (746-mile) pipeline that runs from the oil fields in the east to the port city of Yanbu in the west.