Saudi king warns Gulf attacks could threaten oil supplies

Saudi Arabia's King Salman on Saturday warned that "terrorist" attacks in the region could imperil global oil supplies.

"We confirm that terrorist actions not only target the kingdom and the Gulf region, but also target the safety of navigation and world oil supplies," the king told a meeting of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in the holy city of Mecca.

King Salman has called on Gulf and Arab leaders to confront Iran's "criminal acts" after sabotage attacks damaged four vessels, two of them Saudi oil tankers, in the Sea of Oman and twin Yemeni rebel drone attacks shut down a key Saudi oil pipeline.

"We will resolutely confront aggressive threats and subversive activities," King Salman said on Twitter just before the start of the OIC summit.

The OIC meeting is the third and final summit hosted by Saudi Arabia this week, aimed at galvanising support among Arab and Islamic nations against arch-rival Iran.

Gulf and Arab allies rallied around Saudi Arabia in the first two summits on Friday as it ratcheted up tensions with Iran.

Tehran, which has strongly denied involvement in any of the attacks, expressed disappointment that Riyadh plans to level the same "baseless accusations" at the summit of the 57-member OIC.

"Undermining the security of the kingdom effectively undermines the security of the Arab and Islamic world, and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation calls for a position on the attacks on the kingdom" said OIC Secretary-General Yousef bin Ahmed al-Othaimeen.

The summits came after Trump's hawkish National Security Advisor John Bolton said Wednesday that Iranian naval mines were "almost certainly" responsible for the damage to the four ships off the United Arab Emirates on May 12.

The findings of a five-nation inquiry into what happened have yet to be released.

Tehran dismissed Bolton's accusation as "laughable" and accused him of pursuing "evil desires for chaos in the region".

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