Only 13% of Americans support US military going to war over Saudi oil field attack

Just 13 percent of Americans would support the US military joining Saudi Arabia in a conflict as part of a response to a recent attack on Saudi oil facilities, according to a new poll.

The survey, conducted by the Business Insider news website, asked participants “what, if any, role do you think the US should take in a response to the attack on the Saudi oil facilities?”

The participants were given six options and asked to select the one that comes closest to their view.

The poll found nearly 25 percent of Americans feel “the US should remove itself entirely from the affairs of the region and let Saudi Arabia handle the issue itself.”

“There’s not significant support the for the US involving itself in a Saudi war or taking military action on its behalf as a result of the Saudi oil attack, even though the incident had massive consequences and impacted 5 percent of the daily global oil supply,” Business Insider said.

A separate Business Insider poll shows that barely one in five Americans view Saudi Arabia as a US ally.

Only 22 percent of adult respondents said Saudi Arabia was an American ally, a figure that held among Democratic and Republican voters, the survey found.

The administration of US President Donald Trump is pressing ahead with plans to deploy a battery of Patriot missile systems as well as a series of advanced radars to Saudi Arabia, a move that officials say is a first step in helping the kingdom protect itself against the kind of attacks that recently destroyed its oil facilities.

On September 14, Yemen’s Houthi Ansarullah fighters conducted strikes on two of Saudi Arabia’s oil facilities, in Abqaiq and Khurais. The attacks led to a halt in about 50 percent of the Arab kingdom’s crude and gas production, causing a surge in oil prices.

The raid shut down about 50 percent of the kingdom’s crude and gas production, cutting the state oil giant’s crude oil supply by around 5.7 million barrels per day.

The attack, which also cut five percent of the world’s oil supply, pushed the typically ignored four-year-long Saudi-led aggression in Yemen into the center stage of international headlines.

Washington and its allies, however, quickly blamed Iran for the attack, ignoring the Saudi onslaught in Yemen and expressing concern regarding the “disruption of global energy supplies”.

Tensions have significantly risen as a result of the accusations leveled against Iran, which Tehran has rejected, and there has been speculation that the US may take military or other forms of action against Iran or Iranian interests.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has already warned that a possible military strike against Iran by the US or Saudi Arabia would unleash an “all-out” war in the region.