Saudi crown prince lashes out at rivals
- 16 Jun 2019
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman said he "won't hesitate" to tackle any threats to the kingdom, according to an interview published on Sunday.
"We do not want a war in the region... But we won't hesitate to deal with any threat to our people, our sovereignty, our territorial integrity and our vital interests," Prince Mohammed told pan-Arab daily Asharq al-Awsat, in his first public comments since the attacks.
The US military on Friday had released grainy footage showing an Iranian patrol boat removing an "unexploded limpet mine" from one of the tankers.
Iran has repeatedly warned that it could block the strategic Hormuz Strait in a relatively low-tech, high-impact countermeasure to any attack by the United States.
Doing so would disrupt oil tankers travelling out of the Gulf region to the Indian Ocean and global export routes.
Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia's Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih called for a "swift and decisive" response to threats against energy supplies after Thursday's "terrorist acts".