President Trump on Friday said he slapped economic sanctions on Iran’s national bank that go “right to the top” as he seeks ways to retaliate against Iran, which the White House blames for last Saturday’s drone and missile attack on Saudi Arabia’s oil industry.
“Highest sanctions ever imposed on a country,” Trump said during a White House sit-down with Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison.
The Pentagon has given the president a range of military options, and Trump dispatched Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to Saudi Arabia to discuss a response to the sophisticated attack.
Video of the Sept. 14 attack showed flames leaping into the air just before dawn, with thick black smoke rising from the site visible from space.
Iran denies being involved in the attack and its foreign minister warns that any retaliatory strike on it by the US or Saudi Arabia will result in “an all-out war.”
The spike in regional tensions comes as Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers unravels, following Trump’s unilateral withdrawal of the US from the accord over a year ago.
Yemen’s Iranian-allied Houthi rebels claimed to be behind the assault, but analysts say the missiles used wouldn’t have had enough range to reach the site from Yemen.
The missiles and drones used also resemble Iranian-made weapons, though analysts say more study is needed to definitively link them to Tehran.
A Saudi-led coalition has battled the Houthis since March 2015 in a bloody and stalemated war.
With Associated Press