Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif in an interview with CBS, said that Yemeni Houthi rebels independently increased the range of rockets, so were able to strike oil facilities in Saudi Arabia.
According to him, the Yemeni rebels got weapons from the country’s ex-President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who “bought them for Saudi money during his long stay in power”.
At the same time, Zarif noted that the Houthis have the technology and “know-how” that allowed them to improve existing weapons.
The Iranian foreign Minister also emphasized that Riyadh has not provided any evidence of Tehran’s involvement in the attacks.
Several plants of the Saudi oil and gas state-owned company Saudi Aramco were attacked by drones on September 14, after which the Kingdom was forced to reduce oil production by more than half.
Despite the fact that responsibility for the attack was claimed by Yemeni Houthi rebels, against whom the Arab coalition led by Saudi Arabia is fighting, Riyadh and Washington blamed Tehran for the incident. Iran called it a lie. The government stressed that attacks on oil facilities harm the entire region and noted that such accusations are traditional for the United States and are not surprising.
Despite the lack of evidence of Iran’s involvement in the attack, trump instructed to significantly tighten sanctions against Tehran.