British PM accuses Iran of being behind Saudi oil attacks

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has accused Iran of being behind last week’s attacks on two major oil facilities in Saudi Arabia.

According to Press TV, Johnson said the UK would work with the United States and European allies on a joint response to the attacks on the two facilities in Abqaiq and Khurais.

“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 Monday 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.”

The attacks by Yemen’s Ansarullah fighters on September 14 led to a halt in about 50 percent of the Arab kingdom’s crude and gas production, causing a surge in oil prices.

The United States and Saudi Arabia have already accused Iran of carrying out the attacks on Aramco installations. Tehran, however, has rejected the allegations with Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif saying the new Saudi military operation in Yemen is a clear indication that Riyadh itself does not believe Iranian involvement.

The US-backed Saudi air campaign against neighboring Yemen has so far martyred thousands of civilians, caused millions to leave or lose their homes, and sparked widespread starvation.

The Yemeni army and volunteer forces led by the country’s popular Ansarullah Movement have attacked refineries in Saudi Arabia in the past in efforts to strike at the despotic regime’s major economic sectors. The latest attack, however, hit target that were about 500 miles deep into the Saudi territory and was one of the largest operations the Yemeni forces have launched so far.

ME