Gas Prices and Troubles with Iran
September 20, 2019
Recently, several oil facilities have experienced many coordinated attacks depleting almost half of the country’s oil capacity and causing America’s gas prices to go up. President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo have responded by saying they know of the alleged culprit.
The Abqaiq facility, the world’s largest petroleum processing plant, and the Khurais oil field were attacked on September 14th by 10 coordinated drones, causing a major fire. The effect of the attacks seem to be severe as five million barrels per day of crude production has been impacted. Gas prices began to spike throughout the U.S. last Monday.
The Houthi rebels, a movement in Northern Yemen that started in the 1990s, have claimed the attacks as theirs, and Yahia Sarie spoke for the Houthi rebels in a televised address stating that the attacks would worsen if the War of Yemen continued.
The War of Yemen started in March of 2015 between the Iran-aligned Houthi movement and Yemen’s Saudi-backed government. Warfare has not only killed over 70,000 people, but has also caused a huge famine for the country.
Hassan Rouhani, the president of Iran, said that the attack is caused by Yemen not Iran.
“Instead of creating a positive atmosphere, the American diplomats are trying to exert maximum slander on Iran with baseless and meaningless accusations,” said Rouhani, according to CNN.
However, Donald Trump stated to CNN that “it is looking like” Iran was behind the attacks and that “we pretty much know.”
He also emphasized that he didn’t want to have a war with Iran, but we as a country need to be prepared. Citizens have mixed opinions about the accusations that the president has made.
As this is still an ongoing issue, future consequences for our country’s future should be taken into consideration.