US wants to avoid war with Iran amid two countries’ tension on Saudi oil attacks

The US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo affirmed on Sunday (September 22) that the US wants to avoid war with Iran and its troops sent in the Gulf was for “deterrence and defense”.

Photo: Europost

The US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Sunday (September 22) that US brought its troops to the Gulf to avoid war with Iran on the interview with Fox News Sunday “Our mission set is to avoid war. You saw what Secretary Esper announced on Friday, we are putting additional forces in the region for the purpose of deterrence and defense”.

He also asserted the US President Donald Trump would have a further next step unless the deterrence measures were succeeded “If that deterrence should continue to fail, I am also confident that President Trump would continue to take the actions that are necessary”.

The US had deployed more troops and military equipment to Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates on Friday (September 20) to strengthen two countries’ air and missiles defenses following the attacks on Saudi Aramco’s oil facilities.

The US Secretary of Defense Mark Esper shared that "we will also work to accelerate the delivery of military equipment to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the UAE to enhance their ability to defend themselves".

In addition, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Joseph Dunford added "No single system is going to be able to defend against a threat like that, but a layered system of defensive capabilities would mitigate the risk of swarms of drones or other attacks that may come from Iran".

The US had also imposed new sanctions on Iran’s Central Bank on Friday (September 20) as President Trump had said before and would revealed more information on the sanctions within 48 hours.

Trump described those punishments to Iran was the highest sanctions ever imposed on a country” and commented that “It’s too bad what’s happening with Iran. It’s going to hell, doing poorly, practically broke, they are broke”.

The sanctions aimed to suspend “all source of funds to Iran”, as Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin had said.

Reacting to the US’s new moves, the head of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Major General Hossein Salami announced “Be careful, a limited aggression will not remain limited. We will pursue any aggressor. We are after punishment and we will continue until the full destruction of any aggressor” in Iranian state television on Saturday (September 21).

Moreover, Amiraly Hajizadeh, heads of the Revolutionary Guards’ aerospace branch had threatened to give “a crushing response” to any strikes on Iran, according to IRNA.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif even called the US’s new sanctions as “a sign of U.S. desperation” and said “when they repeatedly sanction the same institution, this means their attempt at bringing the Iranian nation to its knees under ‘maximum pressure’ has failed”.

The escalation of the US – Iran tension could extend the deadlock of nuclear talks on 2015 nuclear deal of two countries which was intended to hold on the sideline of United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) meeting.

French Foreign Minister Jean – Yves Le Drian had expressed the France’s hope to decrease the tension between the US and Iran. He said “The meeting between President Trump and President Rouhani is not the No.1 subject. The priority subject is whether we can restart a de-escalation path with the different actors”.

Reuters, Aljazeera ( Van Nguyen )