Zarif Says Saudi Arabia Hardly Believes In Iranian Links To Attack On Oil Facilities

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 21st September, 2019) Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Saturday that Saudi Arabia hardly believed in Tehran's involvement in the recent drone attack on Saudi oil facilities, despite opposite remarks on the issue.

Last week, the drone attack on Saudi Aramco forced the Saudi Arabian national oil company to shut down its Abqaiq and Khurais facilities. Although the responsibility was claimed by the military wing of Yemen's Ansar Allah movement, also known as the Houthis, Saudi Arabia and the United States have put the blame on Iran.

Tehran has refuted the accusations.

"Since the Saudi regime has blamed Iran - baseless as that is - for the attacks on its oil facilities, curious that they retaliated against Hodaideh [Al Hudaydah] in Yemen today - breaking a UN ceasefire. It is clear that even the Saudis themselves don't believe the fiction of Iranian involvement," Zarif wrote on his Twitter page.

On Friday, the Saudi-led coalition launched an operation against military facilities of the Shia Houthi rebels in the northern part of the Yemeni province of Al Hudaydah less than a week after the drone attack.