Yemeni Defenders’ Shock and Awe Resistance

Hit on Saudi Aramco sends chills through global colonial hegemony

Brecht Jonkers

On September 14, the world experienced a shockwave. The mujahidin of Yemen struck the world’s largest oil refinery complex in a highly successful drone strike on Abqaiq and Khurais in Saudi Arabia.

It is not possible to overstate the importance of the strike on Saudi Aramco facilities in the grand scheme of things. Yemen has been a forgotten and underreported conflict ever since the Saudi-Emirati-US alliance invaded the impoverished country in March 2015. It is a war so vile, so destructive, and so bereft of any justification, that the imperialist mainstream media outlets have decided to not even try to justify it. Rather, they have opted for silence. Ignore it and people will not notice, is their policy.

For four and a half years, the aggressors have subjected impoverished Yemen’s civilians to constant bombings. Nearly half of the country’s landmass has been occupied. There is constant infighting and mass murders in the occupied east and south of Yemen. The Saudi-UAE invaders provide open support to terrorist organisations such as al-Qaeda and Da‘ish. Despite all this being known publicly, there is barely a peep in the major media outlets of the US, UK, or the rest of Europe.

But all that changed in one swift operation by the forces of the National Salvation Government of Yemen, often called “the Houthis” by the imperialist media. As many as 10 drones were reported to have struck the Abqaiq and Khurais petroleum refineries. The economic damage to the Kingdom is devastating. More than half of the petroleum production and export of the Wahhabi state was cut down in a single day, making Riyadh lose out on as much as 5.7 million barrels of crude oil exports daily.

According to specialist consultancy agency Energy Aspects, the Saudi kingdom also suffered a setback of 18% in natural gas production and as much as 50% in ethane and liquified gas output. The massive decrease in available crude oil, combined with damage to the refinery, have had the additional effect of causing a shortage of refined petroleum products. These are needed to repair and run the refinery’s machinery.

In stark irony, Energy Aspects reported that it is highly likely that Saudi Arabia, the kingdom founded because of oil and entirely dependent on it, will be forced to import gasoline, diesel and fuel oil just to keep its own oil-based economy afloat.

While the royals and their ministers in Riyadh guaranteed that the Abqaiq and Khurais facilities were up and running again by September 16, experts estimate that full recovery will take at least two weeks. That is, if no further retaliatory strikes are carried out from the land of Sheba. That does not take into account the hydrogen sulphur that has been released by the fires when the strike occurred. This is likely to directly reduce the efficiency of pumping installations.

The results of the Yemeni retaliation against their invader’s bread and butter were felt around the world. Oil prices jumped by no less than 20% on the global markets, forcing the US to announce a release of its own strategic petroleum reserves in order to avoid a major economic disaster.

Aerial image of the points of impact of Yemeni retaliatory drone/ cruise missile attack on Saudi oil production infrastructure at Aramco facilities in Abqaiq, 9-14-2019. Reports now coming in from investigators indicate this was a sophisticated attack, perhaps taking months to plan, and waiting on the ideal conditions to execute: lead drones first took out the US Patriot radar installations and then follow on cruise missiles hit the intended targets. The accuracy of the drone/ missile strikes suggests that oil workers sympathetic to Ansarullah, or Yemeni agents posing as workers placed cell phones in appropriate places to act as homing beacons. Regardless, the fact that the US, with its billion dollar surveillance equipment and satellite technology, still has not determined where the drones/missiles came from over ten days after the attack took place, and could not protect the economic lifeline of the entire developed world indicates that US power is no longer invincible and Muslim military parity is fast becoming a reality.

Naturally, accusations from Riyadh and Washington went straight to the Islamic Republic of Iran, claiming Tehran was behind the strikes. And reflecting raw racism, they claimed the proud people of Yemen are “too backward” to pull off an attack of this magnitude. However, unbiased analysis of the facts show that Yemen most definitely could, and would, retaliate against their aggressors in such a spectacular manner. The accusation against Iran was also meant to divert attention from Saudi incompetence and the failure of US-supplied billion-dollar-a-piece Patriot missile batteries to intercept incoming drones.

It must be borne in mind, this is not the first airstrike, be it by missiles or by unmanned aircraft, that the Republic of Yemen has carried out against the Najdi invaders. While counterattacks deep inside Saudi territory have been taking place ever since the start of the war, the year 2019 has seen a surge in successful high-profile retaliations.

On May 14, the Saudi regime was forced to stop pumping crude oil in its main pipelines across the country, following Yemeni drone strikes against two Aramco facilities west of Riyadh. On June 12, a missile strike launched from inside Yemen hit Abha International Airport, which was in use by the Saudi military at the time, exploding right in the arrivals hall and causing major damage. It is noteworthy that Abha is over 100 km from the Yemeni border. The airport was hit again just five days later and yet again on July 2, destroying a hangar for military planes. Together with the Saudi military airbase of Khamis Mushayt in ‘Asir province, the airport of Abha has been struck multiple times in the past few months. This reflects the total incompetence of Saudi air defence systems.

The month of August 2019 started with a double missile and drone attack against two very different Saudi targets. First, a joint missile and UAV strike at a camp of Saudi-backed mercenaries in the southern port city of Aden killed dozens of collaborators. And then the Yemeni mujahidin hit a Saudi military base in Dammam city, in the Eastern province of Saudi Arabia that is hundreds of kilometres away from the Yemeni border.

On August 17, an attack took place that can be seen as a general rehearsal of sorts for the Abqaiq and Khurais strikes. Using a fleet of drones, Yemen’s revolutionaries attacked the Shaybah oil refinery. The massive refinery unit, located no less than 1,100 km from Yemen, was chosen specifically for its proximity to the United Arab Emirates (UAE). In one attack, the Yemeni revolutionaries not only proved their capacity to strike deep inside Saudi Arabia and hit its economic lifeline, but also sent shivers down the spine of the Emirate rulers.

“The UAE must quit the Saudi-led aggression if it wants to save its glass towers,” Yemeni military spokesman Yahya Sari‘ warned in crystal clear terms after the mid-September strikes.

The Yemeni struggle for independence and liberty has been a source of inspiration for years. Yet after September 14, the war against the US-Israeli-Saudi-UAE-led aggressors has entered a new phase. It may lead to the collapse of Bani Saud’s rule over the Kingdom. Should that happen, it would be widely celebrated by committed Muslims worldwide.

 

Brecht Jonkers

Zarif: Whoever starts war will not be the one who finishes it

U.S. 'posturing' by sending troops to Saudi Arabia, Iranian FM says 

TEHRAN - Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has said any country that starts a war against Iran  “will not be the one who finishes it”  as he said  the U.S. is "posturing" by sending troops and defense equipment to Saudi Arabia following the September 14 attacks on a major Saudi Arabia oil facility.

"I think it's posturing. I think it's all going the wrong direction in addressing this issue," Zarif said in response to a question on how Iran sees the development in an interview that was set to air Sunday on CBS' "Face the Nation."

The Trump administration has blamed Iran for the attack by the Yemenis on Saudi Arabia’s Abqaiq plant and its Khurais oil field that adversely affected up to half of the supplies from the world’s biggest oil exporter.

President Donald Trump on Friday approved the deployment of U.S. troops and missile defense equipment to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Thursday said the attacks were an "act of war" while Trump announced he would "substantially increase" sanctions on Iran.
Zarif denied that Iran had anything to do with the attacks and said if the United Nations launches an impartial investigation into the attack “the outcome will be that it was not launched from Iran"

“We are confident that if the United Nations carries out an impartial investigation the outcome will be that it was not launched from Iran," Zarif remarked.

The chief diplomat has already said linking Iran to the attack on the Saudi oil facilities is a “maximum deceit” in line with Washington’s “maximum pressure” on Tehran. On Friday, Zarif also said “even the Saudis themselves don't believe the fiction of Iranian involvement” in the attacks on the Aramco oil facilities, citing Saudi Arabia’s retaliation attack on Hodaideh in Yemen as a reason.

Asked by CBS if he was confident Iran could avoid a war, Zarif said, "I'm confident that we will not start one but I'm confident that whoever starts one will not be the one who finishes it."

"That means that there won't be a limited war," Zarif said, echoing his previous comments that a military strike on Iran by the United States or Saudi Arabia would result in an “all-out war."

Major General Hossein Salami, the chief of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), also threatened on Saturday that any country that attacks Iran will see its territory become the “main battlefield”. He added, “Whoever wants their land to become the main battlefield, go ahead.” The general also said Iran will claim responsibility for anything it does.

Zarif says U.S. made it clear he was not welcome at UN

Zarif also said that the U.S. made it clear he was not welcome at the United Nations General Assembly in New York City next week that he planned to attend, despite being approved for a visa waiver.

"Well not necessarily, because the United States is under obligation, being the host of the UN headquarters to issue visas to member states. So they made it very clear in a letter that they attached to my visa that I'm not eligible to get a visa, but they're doing it on a waiver basis. So they want me to know that I'm not supposed to be here," Zarif stated.

The United States under President Trump has put an extreme pressure on Iran. He abandoned the 2015 nuclear deal, officially called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), in May 2018 that was struck under his predecessor Barack Obama.

He has introduced a total ban on Iran’s oil export, Iran’s main source of income. Since abandoning the JCPOA, the Trump administration has been trying to strangulate the Iranian economy. Iran has called the U.S. sanctions pressure “economic terrorism”.

Trump on Friday said he has ordered sanctions on Iran’s central bank at “the highest level.”

Trump, who had initially imposed the sanctions applied to Iran’s “national bank,” said the new penalties on Iran mark the “highest sanctions ever imposed on a country.”

The president’s remarks at the White House came two days after he announced via Twitter that he had instructed Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin “to substantially increase Sanctions on the country of Iran!”

Zarif says Iran is “confident that if the United Nations carries out an impartial investigation into” the attack on the Saudi oil facilities, “the outcome will be that” the drones were “not launched from Iran." 

Many analysts believe that the regime of Benjamin Netanyahu is behind Trump’s illegal approach toward Iran. Netanyahu was one of the chief opponents of the nuclear deal and has been repeatedly claiming that Iran is bent on building nuclear weapons. 
Zarif has referred to recent remarks by former U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson about how Israelis have played Trump, saying Tillerson’s remarks confirms that the B-Team took Trump for an “easy mark”.

“Even President Trump’s former Secretary of State now confirms what we have long pointed out: #B_Team took @realDonaldTrump for an easy mark who could be lied to and pushed to war—and the US military as their personal mercenary,” Zarif said in a tweet on Saturday.

“Some still do, despite his firing of one member,” he added.

Tillerson said on Wednesday that Israeli officials “played” Trump in their conversations with him, warning that a “healthy amount of skepticism” is needed in dealings with Netanyahu.

The comments came during a panel discussion at Harvard University in which Tillerson, who was fired by Trump last year, touched on a variety of themes from his tenure, including Iran, his hiring freeze at the State Department and the unpredictable nature of Israel’s longest-serving prime minister, Netanyahu. 

“They did that with the president on a couple of occasions, to persuade him that ‘We’re the good guys, they’re the bad guys,’” Tillerson said, according to the Harvard Gazette. “We later exposed it to the president so he understood, ‘You’ve been played.’”

The “B-team” is a term thrown into popular usage by Zarif. It refers to a group of politicians who share an inclination toward potential war against Iran, and the letter “b” in their names. They include Benjamin Netanyahu, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, and, former U.S. national security advisor John Bolton. 
Bolton was fired on September 10.