President Trump said Iran is likely behind a drone attack that forced the temporary shutdown of a critical Saudi Arabian oil pipeline, while separately touting the U.S. military’s tight control over the Strait of Hormuz during remarks to reporters in Ireland Saturday.
Speaking alongside Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin during a two-day visit to Ireland, Trump was asked directly whether Iran was responsible for the attack on Saudi Arabia’s East-West pipeline and what the kingdom might do in response. “Well, I think they are probably they are you know, they’re on the balls of their feet right now. But I think they are they’ve been in charge of that for a while,” Trump said.
The president then shifted to describing his administration’s ongoing communications with Yemen’s Houthi rebels, saying the group has told the U.S. it does not want a fight. “We’ve had discussions. The Houthis called us and they don’t want to fight with us. They let us know. They don’t want to fight with us. They don’t want me to go after them. They don’t want us to go after them,” Trump said, adding that the Houthis “would much prefer not having us involved, and they’re letting most ships go through,” with one unspecified exception. “There’s just one country that they’re not too happy with, and we’ll get that straightened out,” he said.
Trump went on to boast about American military dominance over the Strait of Hormuz, another critical global oil chokepoint. “We control, as you know, we really very powerfully controlled the Hormuz Strait and nobody saw that happening. But we have very powerful control over it,” he said. He credited a U.S. naval blockade with keeping oil prices from rising further. “We have a naval, a naval blockade that’s been so incredible for your oil prices would be much higher,” Trump said, adding that American forces are intercepting vessels attempting to move through the strait on a near-daily basis. “We’re taking a lot of boats out. We take out on average 25 boats a day. Most of them at night. But we take on average about 25 boats out every single day,” he said.
Trump also predicted that global oil prices would drop significantly once the broader conflict with Iran comes to an end.
The Saudi pipeline in question, which stretches 745 miles and had been handling up to 5 percent of the world’s oil supply, was temporarily shut down Friday following a drone strike, according to Reuters. The pipeline has played a key role in helping Saudi Arabia route oil around bottlenecks in the Strait of Hormuz amid the ongoing regional tensions. As of Trump’s remarks, it remained unclear who was actually responsible for the strike on the pipeline.
The comments come as the administration continues to grapple with a rapidly evolving set of threats to global energy infrastructure across the Middle East, even as Trump touts what he describes as effective U.S. military control over key maritime chokepoints in the region.
