Iranian President: Yemen’s Attacks on Saudi Oil Facilities Warning to Enemies

“Enemies of the region should take lesson from this warning and should be after extinguishing the fire of war in the region to let the people live in freedom and welfare,” President Rouhani said, addressing a cabinet meeting in Tehran on Wednesday.

He referred to the recent wars launched by the US and its allies in the region, including Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria and the Persian Gulf region, calling on them to bring peace at least one time.

“Why do you always send gunpowder to the regional nations and avoid helping them and then raise allegations against other countries while no one believes these allegations,” Rouhani said.

He dismissed the US allegations about Iran’s involvement in Yemenis’ attacks on the Saudi oil installations, and said, “Iran wants friendly relations with its Southern neighbors.”

President Rouhani defended the Yemeni people’s right to respond to aggressions against their country, and said the Yemenis have not targetted schools, hospitals and markets (like what the Saudi-led coalition did in Yemen) and have attacked an industrial center to warn their enemies.

He underscored that Iran never wants clashes in the region, and said, “We should know that the Yemeni nation has not been the starter of the conflict, but Saudi Arabia, the UAE, the Americans, certain European states and the Zionist regime have launched a war in the region and destroyed Yemen.”

Yemen’s Ansarullah movement announced on Saturday that its drones had successfully attacked two oil plants in the heart of Saudi Arabia’s oil industry, stressing that the attacks were a firm response to Riyadh’s relentless bombardment of Yemen.

The recent operation came just weeks after Yemeni forces conducted attacks on an oil field affiliated to Saudi Aramco in the East of the kingdom in retaliation for Riyadh’s war on their country. Oil facilities at Shaybah, which has the largest strategic oil reserve in Saudi Arabia near the UAE border and operated by state-oil company Saudi Aramco, were targeted by 10 Yemeni drones.

After the Yemenis’ Saturday attack, the US rushed to blame Iran but the Iranian foreign ministry strongly rejected the American officials’ allegations that Tehran was involved in the drone attacks against the Saudi oil installations.

“Yemen has been entangled in war for 5 years and Iran has naturally clearly announced that it supports the Yemeni people and their rights, but blaming Iran for such measures is in line with (the American officials’ policy of) maximum lie,” Foreign Ministry Spokesman Seyed Abbas Mousavi told reporters in a press conference in Tehran on Monday.

“Such remarks are essentially baseless and untrue,” he added.

His comments came after US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo blamed the Saturday drone attacks by the Yemeni army against Saudi Arabia’s oil installations on Iran claiming on Twitter that there was “no evidence the attacks came from Yemen”.

After his remarks, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif blasted Pompeo for allegations against Tehran, saying that Washington which had failed in pressures against Iran was now resorting to lies and deceits.

“Having failed at max pressure, Pompeo’s turning to max deceit,” Zarif wrote on his twitter page on Sunday.

“The US and its clients are stuck in Yemen because of illusion that weapon superiority will lead to military victory,” Zarif added.

He noted that blaming Iran won’t end disaster, saying that the US and the Saudi-led coalition should accept Iran’s “April 15 proposal to end war and begin talks” to resolve the crisis in Yemen politically.