UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Monday Britain believes Iran was responsible for the attacks and will work with the United States and European allies on a so-called joint response, Reuters reported.
“The UK is attributing responsibility with a very high degree of probability to Iran for the Aramco attacks. We think it very likely indeed that Iran was indeed responsible,” Johnson told reporters on the plane to the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
“We will be working with our American friends and our European friends to construct a response that tries to deescalate tensions in the Persian Gulf region.”
Yemen’s Ansarullah movement and their allies in the Yemeni army deployed as many as 10 drones to bomb Abqaiq and Khurais oil facilities run by the Saudi state-owned oil company Aramco last Saturday (September 14).
The unprecedented attack knocked out more than half of Saudi crude output, or five percent of global supply, prompting Saudi and US officials to claim without any evidence that it probably originated from Iraq or Iran.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, without evidence, was also quick to blame Iran for the brazen attack. The claim drew ridicule from many social media users who compared Pompeo’s rushed conclusion to Washington’s indecision about the murder of prominent journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in October 2018.
Continuing the US’ blame game, Saudi Arabia also said on Friday the attacks on its oil infrastructure came from the "north" and were "unquestionably" sponsored by Iran, but the kingdom was still investigating where exactly they were launched from.
Tehran has vehemently rejected accusations of involvement in the raids as "lies" and warned of "an all-out war" in the event of military strikes against the country.
MNA/PR
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