Drone strikes set fire to a Saudi Aramco plant in Abqaiq on Saturday. The strikes not only damaged facilities that allow the kingdom to process the vast majority of the crude output but also raised the risk of disrupting global oil supplies. The shock waves from the event panicked Washington DC — a supporter of Riyadh’s undue military campaign in Yemen.
To offset any disruption in supply, the Trump administration announced it would tap into the strategic oil reserves. But the Trump administration could do a lot more to prevent such a situation from occurring again. For starters, the pro-Riyadh administration in Washington could use its influence to convince the oil-rich kingdom to end the war, which has exposed its vulnerabilities. After all, a not so costly drone strike, by a ragtag constellation of militias in Yemen virtually crippled the global oil supplies. That tells us how vulnerable Saudi Arabia and the global oil supplies are. The Houthis, who are backed by the Iranians, have used similar techniques before. With limited financial resources to match Saudi Arabia’s military might, they have resorted to drone strikes for more than a year now. And the recent attack shows their capabilities have improved significantly.
They know where to hit the Saudis and what might hurt the most. With the war settled into a bloody stalemate, and with the militias using unconventional ways to harm Riyadh’s not so sophisticated oil infrastructure, maybe its time for the kingdom and it’s the de facto ruler, Mohammad Bin Salman, to revisit the military campaign in Yemen.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 16th, 2019.
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