Donald Trump softens rhetoric against Iran following oil attacks

A day after US President Donald Trump said his military was “locked and loaded” to strike those behind attacks on Saudi oil infrastructure, he has now softened his speech, saying he is in “no rush”.

The world’s largest oil plant and oil processing operation was attacked on Saturday (local time) and cut the export of crude oil by half.

Houthi rebels in Yemen, who are backed by Iran, claimed credit for the attack which experts say must have used drones and cruise missiles that were highly accurate in hitting their targets. Saudi officials have said that “Iranian weapons” were used in the attack but did not directly imply Iran’s government ordered the attack.

The appearance is that rebels have acted independently and not with the official support of Iran. Several members of the US Cabinet, including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, have said that they believe Iran is responsible for the attack.

Donald Trump initially responded by saying that the US was “locked and loaded” to retaliate but had no said that he is focused on discovering who is responsible for the attacks. He said that “I’m somebody that would like not to have war,”.