Sareen Haddad, 21, leads protesters near the White House on Tuesday, in opposition to Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu's visit to Washington. FINN GOMEZ/GETTY IMAGES
Days of relative calm in the Middle East region were shattered when Saudi Arabia confirmed joint strikes with the United States against "Iran-aligned terrorist militias" in Iraq, citing "self-defense" after the kingdom's oil facilities were attacked.
The Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a strong statement on Wednesday, calling the "reprehensible" drone attacks "a reckless path of escalation in blatant violation of international law". It said the attacks happened at a time when the kingdom was "exerting every effort to help de-escalate tensions in the region in a manner that preserves its security and stability".
In a statement issued earlier on the same day, the official spokesman of the Ministry of Defense, Major General Turki Al-Maliki, said that Saudi air defenses intercepted and destroyed several drones that attempted to target petroleum facilities in the Eastern Province and Riyadh region.
On Wednesday, Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi called for an emergency meeting of the National Security Ministerial Council, the Iraqi News Agency, or INA, reported.
