United States Defense Secretary Mike Esper said Monday that the US military is preparing a response to the attack on major Saudi Arabia oil facilities.
After briefing US President Donald Trump in the White House, Esper singled out Iran as undermining international order, without directly pinning blame on Tehran for the attack.
“The United States military, with our interagency team, is working with our partners to address this unprecedented attack and defend the international rules-based order that is being undermined by Iran,” he said in a tweet.
Esper said he and the Pentagon leadership met with Trump in the wake of Saturday’s attack, which analysts say appears to have involved drones and possibly cruise missiles launched from a nearby country.
Earlier, he also spoke with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman as well as Iraqi Defense Minister Najah al-Shemmari.
There was, however, no suggestion of what kind of response Washington or its Gulf allies were considering.
The Iran-supported Houthi rebels in Yemen claimed responsibility for the attack.
But the Riyadh-led coalition fighting the Houthis said earlier Monday that the weapons were Iranian-made, and it remains unclear where they were launched from.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu planned a large offensive in Gaza after rockets were fired near an Ashdod rally where he was speaking last week, but he scotched the plan after the attorney general advised him he would need to get cabinet approval, according to a report Monday.
The rocket attacks on Ashdod and Ashkelon Tuesday briefly forced Netanyahu from the stage, in an incident that drew widespread ridicule from electoral rivals.
Hours after the attack from the Gaza Strip, likely by the Islamic Jihad terror group, Netanyahu convened the heads of the security establishment including IDF chief of staff Aviv Kohavi and Shin Bet head Nadav Argaman and Mossad chief Yossi Cohen.
According to Haaretz, Netanyahu, who is also the defense minister, sought an “extraordinary” and “far-reaching” military reaction to the rocket — the nature of which was not disclosed — but several security officials were hesitant to take such action.
It said Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit informed the prime minister that, based on a 2018 amendment to Basic Law: The Government, the prime minister was required to consult the cabinet on any decision on a major military operation that had a likelihood of leading the country to war.
The requirement reportedly gave the prime minister pause, and he eventually retreated from his demand for a harsh response, the report said. The IDF eventually carried out some 15 airstrikes in Gaza in response to the rockets, slightly more intense than its usual responses to rocket attacks.
In the days since the Ashdod attack Netanyahu has warned that war with terror groups in the Gaza Strip could break out “at any moment,” including before Tuesday’s election.
The rocket launched at Ashdod caught Netanyahu in the middle of a campaign rally in the city. He was whisked off the stage by his bodyguards to take shelter.
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