The UK, France and Germany on Monday joined the US in blaming Iran for attacks on key oil facilities in Saudi Arabia, but Iranian Minister of Foreign Affairs Mohammad Javad Zarif pointed to claims of responsibility by Yemeni rebels and said: “If Iran were behind this attack, nothing would have been left of this refinery.”
Fallout from the Sept. 14 attacks is still reverberating as world leaders gather for their annual meeting at the UN General Assembly and international experts investigate, at Saudi Arabia’s request, what happened and who was responsible.
The leaders of the UK, France and Germany released a statement reaffirming their support for the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, which the US exited, but telling Iran to stop breaching it and saying “there is no other plausible explanation” than that “Iran bears responsibility for this attack.”
They pledged to try to ease tensions in the Middle East and urged Iran to “refrain from choosing provocation and escalation.”
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Sunday while flying to New York said that the UK would consider taking part in a US-led military effort to bolster Saudi Arabia’s defenses after the drone and cruise-missile attacks on the world’s largest oil processor and an oil field.
On Monday, Zarif denied any part in the attacks, saying that Yemen’s Houthi rebels, who claimed responsibility, “have every reason to retaliate” for the Saudi-led coalition’s aerial attacks on their country.
He also stressed that on the eve of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani’s visit to the UN in New York City, “it would be stupid for Iran to engage in such activity.”
Zarif called it an attack “with high precision, low impact” and no casualties.
In the refinery, there were facilities that would have taken Saudi Arabians a year to repair, he said.
“Why did they hit the lowest impact places?” Zarif asked, saying that if Iran was responsible, the refinery would have been destroyed.
France has been trying to find a diplomatic solution to US-Iranian tensions, which soared after the Saudi attacks, and has carefully avoided assigning blame.
Earlier, on his way to New York City, French President Emmanuel Macron said he remained “cautious” about attributing responsibility for the attacks.
There was no immediate explanation of why he later shifted positions and blamed Iran.
Macron said at a UN news conference not long before the statement was issued that he planned to meet separately with both US President Donald Trump and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani over the next day and would work to foster “the conditions for discussion” and not escalation.
Zarif said he plans to meet today with ministers of all five countries remaining in the 2015 nuclear deal, including Russia and China.
Also on Monday, Iranian government spokesman Ali Rabiei suggested that the release of a British-flagged oil tanker held by Tehran since July would be imminent, although he did not know when it would leave.
The Stena Impero has not turned on its satellite-tracking beacon in 58 days and there has not been any sign that it has left its position near Iranian port of Bandar Abbas.
The Iranian Revolutionary Guard seized the vessel after authorities in Gibraltar seized an Iranian crude oil tanker. That ship has since left Gibraltar, leading to hopes the Stena Impero would be released.
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