Told ya, Trump has announced sanctions, not war.

Trump will never go to war. Hes a used car salesman, he does not have the backbone to make that sort of decision.

https://edition.cnn.com/2019/09/19/middleeast/iran-zarif-saudi-intl/index.html




By Nick Paton Walsh, CNN

Updated 1410 GMT (2210 HKT) September 19, 2019



Tehran, Iran (CNN)Iran's foreign minister has raised the specter of "all-out war" in the event of US or Saudi military strikes and that Saudi Arabia would have to fight "to the last American soldier."

Javad Zarif told CNN that Iran hoped to avoid conflict, adding that the country was willing to talk to its regional rivals Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. But the possibility of a return to negotiations with the US, however, would not happen unless Washington provided full sanctions relief as promised under the 2015 nuclear deal, Tehran's top diplomat said.


He again denied Tehran's involvement in weekend attacks on Saudi Arabia's oil facilities, which dramatically ratcheted up tensions in the region this week. Zarif said Yemen's Iranian-backed Houthi rebels, who claimed responsibility for the attack, have stepped up their military capabilities and are capable of conducting a sophisticated operation such as the one that knocked out half of the kingdom's energy production.

Updated 1410 GMT (2210 HKT) September 19, 2019

rhino wrote on Sep 19^th, 2019 at 3:52pm:


I hope you're right, but he's still got people around him gunning for war, and he's a petty weak little man who wants to appear strong and has an ego to boot, so he himself is unlikely to back away from war too.

There isn't much left to sanction since he tanked the one measure that was actually working to denuclearise the Iranians.

I hope I'm wrong, none of us wants to see the US go into, and us dragged into yet another war.

https://edition.cnn.com/2019/09/19/middleeast/saudi-air-defense-analysis-intl/in...


By Tim Lister, CNN

Updated 1637 GMT (0037 HKT) September 19, 2019


(CNN)Saudi Arabia has spent billions on state-of-the-art air defense and early warning systems, but a mix of cruise missiles and drones was able to penetrate its airspace on Saturday, inflicting substantial damage on the world's largest oil processing plant at Abqaiq.
That suggests serious shortcomings in where Saudi systems are placed and what they're designed to do. But it also illustrates a bigger problem: the age of drone warfare is a massive challenge to governments around the world.
The cruise missiles used in the attacks were re-tooled versions of a Russian design from the 1970s -- and drones are still the poor man's missile even if they are getting more sophisticated. In other words, 5% of global oil supply was taken out by weapons worth not even millions -- let alone billions -- of dollars.

A US defense official told CNN that Saudi and US missile defense systems did not detect the launch nor engage the missiles. One reason was that much of the "missile defense architecture" is oriented toward Yemen from where Houthi forces have regularly fired missiles and drones over the past two years, the official said.
In the aftermath of the attacks, US President Donald Trump has ordered new sanctions on Iran. While Trump has not definitely stated that Iran was behind the strikes, others in his administration have pinned blame on Tehran. Iran has denied responsibility for Saturday's attack.

Trump cannot start a war in the Persian Gulf without
setting the whole place up in fire as
there seems to be no defence against all those cruise missiles & drones.

Well - like any force in being - the possibility of war emerging from their actions is often enough to make recalcitrant nations hold their peace ...

You don't have to carpet bomb them when they know you COULD carpet bomb them ....IF they misbehave ....

Trump know that Muslims are basically cowards and will prefer peace to total dissolution....... and  Iranians are actually a fairly civilised form of Muslim... so given half a chance will come to the table...

The US is working towards de-stabilising the current Iranian regime.... in the expectation that the conservative forces (same as in North Korea) will rise up and oust the current despotic and limited society lot(s)....

One day enough Iranians will grow tired of seeing their children starve and die for a 'cause' - and will say "No More!".

Geo-Politics 101...... offer them the silver bullets of capitalist enterprise, wherein their ruling elite can make BILLIONS... and they'll rise up and oust the Ayatollahs etc...

More wars have been won by silver bullets than by lead ones.... it's really only when the civilised/advanced nations go to war that lead wins the day ....

Saudi Arabia somehow gets a drone strike on their oil production facility. Blames Iran. If Iran was really responsible for the attack, the Saudis would have provided the evidence by now.