US Expanding Military Presence in Saudi Arabia Amid High Tensions with Iran

The US military says it has been testing different ports and airbases on Saudi soil over the past year as options for the deployment of troops and equipment in the event of a conflict with Iran amid heightened tensions between the two sides.

US Navy Capt. Bill Urban, a spokesman for Central Command, said the evaluation of a Red Sea port in Saudi Arabia and additional two airfields began around a year ago under ex-president Donald Trump, following a 2019 attack against the state-owned Saudi Aramco oil processing facilities at Abqaiq.

The Aramco installations were targeted in air raids on September 14, 2019, which disrupted approximately half of the kingdom’s oil capacity or five percent of the daily global oil supply.

“These are prudent military planning measures that allow for temporary or conditional access of facilities in the event of a contingency, and are not provocative in any way, nor are they an expansion of the US footprint in the region, in general, or in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia, in particular,” Urban claimed, according to the Associated Press.

Following the Aramco attack, Saudi Arabia and the US immediately blamed Iran without providing any evidence. Iran denied the allegation. Yemen’s popular Houthi Ansarullah movement later claimed responsibility.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has also said the body’s investigators were unable to independently confirm claims that the Islamic Republic was behind the attack.

Source: Press TV