Iranian-backed Yemeni rebels said that oil installations in Saudi Arabia remain a target after drone attacks on two major sites slashed the kingdom’s output by half and triggered a record surge in oil prices.
The rebel group said its weapons could reach anywhere in Saudi Arabia.
Saturday’s strikes were carried out by aircraft equipped with a new type of engine, the Houthi rebel group said.
“We assure the Saudi regime that our long hand can reach wherever we want, and whenever we want,” Houthi spokesman Yahya Saree said in a statement. “We warn companies and foreigners not to be present in the facilities that were hit in the strikes, because they are still within range and may be targeted at any moment.”
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Sunday said that there was no evidence the raids were carried out from Yemen.
He blamed Iran, as US Secretary of Energy Rick Perry did yesterday.
“The US wholeheartedly condemns Iran’s attack on the kingdom of Saudi Arabia. We call on other nations to do the same,” Perry said at a meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna. “This behavior is unacceptable. They must be held responsible.”
US President Donald Trump said that the US is “locked and loaded depending on verification” of the culprit.
Russia called on countries not to rush to conclusions over who was responsible, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
Iran denied responsibility.
“Accusing Iran of the attacks is in line with the US’s maximum-lies policy,” Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affars spokesman Abbas Mousavi said in Tehran. “Such accusations are unsurprising, unacceptable and baseless.”
Saudi Arabia has yet to assign blame.
The attack on state-owned Saudi Arabian Oil Co’s Abqaiq plant and its Khurais oil field led to the interruption of an estimated 5.7 million barrels of the kingdom’s crude oil production per day, equivalent to more than 5 percent of the world’s daily supply.
The US government produced satellite photos showing what officials said were at least 19 points of impact at two Saudi energy facilities, including damage at the heart of the kingdom’s crucial oil processing plant at Abqaiq.
Officials said the photos show impacts consistent with the attack coming from the direction of Iran or Iraq, rather than from Yemen to the south.
Iraq denied that its territory was used for an attack on the kingdom.
US officials said a strike from there would be a violation of Iraq’s sovereignty.
The US officials said additional devices, which apparently did not reach their targets, were recovered northwest of the facilities and are being jointly analyzed by Saudi and US intelligence.
The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence matters, did not address whether the drone could have been fired from Yemen, then taken a round-about path, but did not explicitly rule it out.
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