ISLAMABAD – While Yemeni Houthi rebels have claimed responsibility for therecent drone attacks on Saudi oil facilities, US Secretary of State MikePompeo was quick to lay the blame on Iran. Donald Trump said the US has”reason to believe that we know the culprit”; Iran denies any role in theincident.
Iran’s foreign ministry has poured scorn on accusations about Tehran’salleged role in the weekend attacks on a critical Saudi oil plant andoilfield.
“These allegations are condemned as unacceptable and entirely baseless,”foreign ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi told a press conference aired onIranian state TV on Monday.
In the early hours of Saturday, two Saudi Aramco plants were targeted inwhat local authorities called a drone attack, which set the oil facilitiesablaze and prompted the kingdom to halt about half of its crude output.
*US Officials React to the Attack*
Yemen’s Houthi militants said they were responsible for the drone strike.The movement said on Monday, as quoted by Reuters, that Saudi Aramco’s oilfacilities were still in the crosshairs and could be attacked at “anymoment”.
However, Mike Pompeo said there was “no evidence the attacks came fromYemen” and pointed the finger at Iran. Donald Trump was less forthcoming,saying that the United States was “locked and loaded depending onverification” of the culprit and is waiting for verification from SaudiArabia, which has not mentioned any names so far.
Trump did not name Iran or specify whether a military option was on thetable; however, the Washington Post reported on Monday, citing a source inthe US administration, that the United States was considering a “seriousmilitary response”, though some military officials were urging restraint.
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In a separate as-yet-unconfirmed report, a unnamed senior US official toldABC News that Iran was behind the attack, firing around a dozen cruisemissiles and over 20 drones from its territory to target the Saudi oilfacilities. “It was Iran,” the official was quoted as saying. “The Houthisare claiming credit for something they did not do.”
*Iran Refutes the Accusations*
Abbas Mousavi earlier said that “such [American] comments and measures aremore akin to the plots hatched by secret and intelligence services fordamaging the image of a state to prepare the ground for a series of[hostile] measures in [the] future”.
Foreign Minister Zarif echoed the statement, saying that the Trumpadministration’s “maximum pressure” policy has turned to “max deceit”.
Houthi fighters regularly conduct drone attacks on facilities in SaudiArabia, which has been fighting in Yemen, with the US’s blessing, as partof an Arab coalition to restore the internationally-recognised government,which fled the nation’s capital Sana’a in early 2015. In May of this year,the Houthis conducted a drone attack on a major Saudi pipeline. At thetime, Riyadh claimed Iran was behind the strike, but Iran refuted theaccusations. -Sputnik
