Car Online, an Iran-based campaign on social media channels, has started to call on its subscribers and followers to incite Yemenis to target facilities of Saudi oil giant Aramco, as a revenge against U.S. strikes against Iranian nuclear sites, the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) says.
The Car Online channel on Telegram began its life as an Iranian social media operation, FDD researchers uncovered last week. During the so-called 12-day war between Israel and Iran, the Car Online operation was instructing followers how to create fake X accounts and use ChatGPT to translate posts from Persian into Hebrew—posts that were meant to be demoralizing messages for the Israeli public in Hebrew.
But this conflict ended – for now – after the United States bombed three Iranian nuclear sites last weekend, with Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan hit in coordinated air strikes, which the U.S. Administration says were a resounding success to stop Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.
After these strikes, the Iranian campaign on social media shifted its focus to Saudi Arabia, FDD has found this week.
“Two days after U.S. strikes against Iranian nuclear facilities, Car Online shifted its focus to encouraging participants to incite Yemenis to strike Aramco with missiles, claiming Saudi money helps fund American bombs,” writes Max Lesser, a senior analyst on emerging threats at FDD’s Center on Cyber and Technology Innovation.
Since the U.S. attacks, Car Online has provided a model post to its participants that calls for revenge against Saudi Arabia and the U.S., with Aramco mentioned as a target, FDD says.
The Houthi rebels in Yemen have claimed in the past they have hit oil infrastructure assets in Saudi Arabia and have taken responsibility for several high-profile attacks in the region.
The most notable attack that the Yemeni rebel group claimed responsibility for was the September 2019 attacks on Saudi Aramco’s oil facilities that cut off 5% of daily global supply for weeks, sending oil prices soaring. But Saudi Arabia and the United States have said that it was Iran—and not the Houthis—who was responsible for the attack.
By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com
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