Iraq’s government was racing Saturday to contain the fallout after local Iran-backed militias were accused of attacking and shuttering a key Saudi pipeline.
Iraq’s government confirmed the attacks had originated from its territory, pledged to investigate and dismissed a military commander.
The country is under mounting pressure to prevent local militias from aiding other Iran proxy groups across the region.
It’s especially acute as the Iran-backed Houthi rebels make an advance across Yemen’s west coast in a major setback to the Saudi-backed coalition that risks escalating the war in the region.
The Iraqi government has set a Sept. 30 deadline for nonstate groups to disarm, but several of the most powerful militias have said they will not comply.
The Houthis on Friday seized an island in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, a key shipping lane through which around 12% of global trade passes.
Their virtual control of the strait could send global oil prices — already inflated by the six-month Iran-US war — spiraling. The strait has become a vital commercial lane for Saudi oil ever since the Iran war disrupted shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.
Iraqi authorities determined that attacks targeting the east-west Saudi pipeline were launched from a site in the country’s Maysan province on the borders with Iran, the government said in a statement early Saturday.
Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi ordered an investigation into the province’s operations command and dismissed its commander, the Saturday statement said.
Saudi Arabia shut down the major, cross-country oil pipeline on Friday, saying it was a “precautionary measure” after the pipeline came under drone attack.
In a statement, the Saudi Foreign Ministry blamed the attacks on several drones that came from Iraq, but said the kingdom would not retaliate, to give the Iraqi government “an opportunity to take the necessary measures.”
Built in the 1980s, the East-West pipeline has played an important role in Saudi Arabia’s ability to export oil following the disruption of the Strait of Hormuz during the Iran war.
By early June, Saudi Arabia had more than doubled oil exports from the Red Sea port at the pipeline’s end to more than 5 million barrels per day, according to the International Energy Agency.
Tehran-backed Iraqi militias have carried out strikes on US-linked targets both inside and outside of Iraq since the US and Israel attacked Iran on Feb. 28, and have coordinated with Yemen’s Houthi rebels to attack Saudi Arabia.
In a move possibly linked to the investigation, Iraq closed two key border crossings with Iran, Iraq’s state-run news agency reported Saturday.
The report said that Iraqi officials were at the border, investigating previous “violations and infractions” at the crossings.
Valiollah Hayati, the deputy governor of Iran’s southwestern Khuzestan province, named the closed crossings as Shalamcheh and Chazabeh. They are among the main official border crossings between Iran and Iraq.
Iranian state media said the measure would halt all passenger and commercial traffic through the two crossings until further notice.
