Simon Henderson is the Baker Senior Fellow and director of the Bernstein Program on Gulf and Energy Policy at The Washington Institute, specializing in energy matters and the conservative Arab states of the Persian Gulf.
Articles & Testimony
Iranian disruption of Saudi production could wreak havoc on global oil markets, and be challenging to counter absent clear fingerprints from Tehran.
Reporting on Saturday's attack on a military parade in the Iranian city of Ahwaz is missing a significant angle—oil. Ahwaz is the capital of Khuzestan province, where Iran's major oilfields are. Tehran could well regard the attack in which 29 died, including some children and other civilian spectators, as an attack on its oil infrastructure. It therefore may regard other countries' oil installations as being a legitimate target for retaliation. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has vowed revenge against Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, as well Israel and the United States. Today Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei accused Riyadh and Abu Dhabi of financing the "perpetrators" and threatened "harsh punishment"...
