Saudi Arabia shut its east-west pipeline late Thursday after it was struck by drones from Iraq. This pipeline connects Saudi Arabia’s oil fields near the Persian Gulf with its port at Yanbu on the Red Sea and is its main means of bypassing the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran has closed with violent and deadly strikes on merchant vessels.

• The drones likely came from Iraqi Shiite militias loyal to Iran. Nobody is taking credit for the attack, but the drones came from a part of Iraq that is a stronghold of Iran’s proxy militias.
• As a result, the global price of oil shot up to $108.50 a barrel.
• Analysts associated with the shipping data company Marhelm told the Telegraph the pipeline could take more than a month to repair due to a “lack of spare parts.”
• This comes as Saudi Arabia is struggling to contain another Iranian terror proxy, the Houthis in Yemen.

Iran is trying to bully Saudi Arabia, angered that the Saudis and other Arab states largely sided with America during the Iran war.

• Donald Trump has close relations with Saudi leadership and other Gulf Arab countries. Iran may also be trying to pressure these leaders to persuade him to back down.
• Iran’s Hormuz embargo hurts petrostates like Saudi Arabia most of all. The pipeline bombing demonstrates Iran’s disruption of the oil trade is a concentrated attack on Saudi Arabia, among other countries.

Psalm 83 prophesies that certain Middle Eastern Muslim countries will band together to form a super-bloc. Verse 6 mentions “the Ishmaelites,” the Saudi people today. (Chapter 4 of The King of the South explains in detail.) In his 2021 article “Deadly Flaw in Mideast Peace Deals,” Gerald Flurry stated that the Psalm 83 alliance will come together in part because it is “motivated basically by fear of Iran!”

• Saudi Arabia wasn’t friendly with Iran in 2021—but relations have grown far more tense since.

Without oil exports, the Saudi economy and regime cannot function. Iran is demonstrating that it has full capacity to hurt Saudi Arabia where it is most vulnerable. This will spur Saudi Arabia and other Gulf Arab countries to look for new partners. The King of the South shows who this new partner will be.