US President Donald Trump has said that his country is “locked and loaded” to respond after a drone attack on Saudi Arabia that cut into global energy supplies and halved the kingdom’s oil production.

Trump said on Twitter that the US was waiting to hear from the Saudis as to who they believe was behind the attack and “under what terms we would proceed!”

His tweets followed a National Security Council meeting at the White House that included Vice President Mike Pence, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Defense Secretary Mark Esper.

A US official speaking on condition of anonymity said all options, including a military response, were on the table, but added that no decisions had been made.

Washington has also released new evidence to back up its allegation that Iran was responsible for the assault amid heightened tensions.

MEANWHILE, Israel’s prime minister has vowed to annex settlements in the West Bank, including one deep in the heart of the largest Palestinian city, if he is re-elected.

Locked in a razor-tight race and with legal woes hanging over him, Benjamin Netanyahu is fighting for his political survival.

In the final weeks of his campaign he has been doling out hard-line promises meant to draw more voters to his Likud party and re-elect him in today’s unprecedented repeat vote.

“I intend to extend sovereignty on all the settlements and the (settlement) blocs,” including “sites that have security importance or are important to Israel’s heritage,” Netanyahu said in an interview.

ELSEWHERE, former US National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden, who leaked classified documents detailing government surveillance programmes, is calling on French President Emmanuel Macron to grant him asylum.

Snowden, now living in Russia to avoid prosecution in the United States, stressed in an interview broadcast yesterday on France’s Inter radio that “protecting whistleblowers is not a hostile act”, and that he feels entitled to get protected status in France.

FINALLY, the leaders of Russia, Iran and Turkey are meeting in the Turkish capital Ankara to discuss the situation in Syria.

The aim of the summit is to halt fighting in the country’s north-western province of Idlib and finding a lasting political solution to Syria’s civil war, now in its ninth year.

Topping the agenda of the meeting is the volatile situation in Idlib – the last remaining rebel stronghold in Syria – where a ceasefire went into effect at the end of August, following a wide four-month offensive by government forces.

The ceasefire has been holding despite some violations that left six people dead last week.