Saudi Arabia said on Tuesday that it had destroyed another wave of drones aimed at oil facilities in its Eastern Province, and that they had been launched from Iraqi territory. Iraq's prime minister spent that day in Ankara, signing energy agreements with Türkiye.

The latest. This is the second Saudi announcement of its kind in two days. Iraq made no immediate comment on the Tuesday interceptions.

Turki al-Maliki, the Saudi Defense Ministry's spokesman, said air defenses intercepted and destroyed several drones over the preceding hours. He called them "terrorist attempts" launched by Iran-backed militias from Iraqi territory, said the kingdom "has the legitimate right to defend itself and its vital infrastructure," and added that it reserves the right to respond "at the appropriate time and place." That attribution is Riyadh's. No party has claimed the launches, and no evidence identifying who sent them has been made public.

Monday's announcement was wider. Riyadh said then that it had intercepted drones aimed at petroleum facilities in both the Eastern Province and the Riyadh region, and it called on Baghdad to take all necessary measures to stop Iraqi territory being used as a launching point.

Baghdad moved the same day. Ali al-Zaidi, who is prime minister and commander-in-chief of the armed forces, ordered security agencies to investigate the information Saudi Arabia had provided. His spokesman, Sabah al-Numan, said the government "reaffirms its constitutional and unwavering commitment to the principles of good neighborliness and to not allowing the use of Iraqi territory as a corridor or launchpad for any attack targeting brotherly or friendly countries." Iraq was examining the evidence, he said, and would take legal action against anyone the investigation proved was involved. He called relations with Saudi Arabia firm and fraternal.

Then the drones came again, on the day al-Zaidi was out of the country.

He has spent the past fortnight selling Iraq to four capitals as a corridor. Tehran last week, where he said Iraq would never allow its territory to be used to threaten Iran. Ankara on Tuesday, where Turkish Petroleum took a 15% stake in BP's Kirkuk company and he said Iraq could supply Türkiye with a million barrels of crude a day. Shafaq News, which reported his Washington visit in mid-July 2026, said Riyadh comes next.

This is also not the first time the accusation has been made this year. In April 2026 the Saudi foreign ministry summoned Iraq's ambassador, Safia Taleb Al-Suhail, and handed her a protest note over what it called continued drone attacks and threats launched from Iraqi territory at Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states.

Saudi oil is now being shot at from two directions. On the Red Sea side, Yemen's Houthi group said on Tuesday it had fired ballistic missiles at the Saudi tanker NCC GHAZAL for breaking the naval blockade it declared on 20 July 2026, and that the vessel was forced to turn back. UK Maritime Trade Operations, a maritime security monitor, reported that a tanker had suffered an explosion while transiting the Red Sea, with the crew safe and no environmental damage. The Houthis had claimed attacks on two other Saudi tankers on 22 July 2026, the Encelia and the Layla, and the Saudi Press Agency confirmed the Encelia was hit.

Bab al-Mandeb, where those tankers pass, carried about 4.1 billion barrels of crude and refined products in 2024, roughly 5% of the world total. At the other end of the kingdom, Iran's position remains that the Strait of Hormuz is closed, as it has been since March 2026.

Türkiye has said nothing about any of it. Ankara has issued no statement on the drones, on Iraqi territory, or on Riyadh's accusation, and when Erdoğan listed the regional questions he and al-Zaidi had gone over, he named Iran, Syria and Palestine.

Türkiye has bought in instead. The agreement signed in Ankara on Tuesday puts a Turkish state company inside the Kirkuk fields, in a country whose government is investigating whether its own soil was used to attack the oil facilities of its neighbor. Baghdad has given itself until 30 September 2026 to bring weapons held outside state institutions under state control. The groups that have refused to join that process are the ones closest to Tehran.

No government has connected Riyadh's accusation to those holdouts. Iraq's investigation is the only one under way.