Saudi Arabia’s defense ministry said it will on Wednesday present “material” evidence “proving the Iranian regime’s involvement” in the weekend attacks on the kingdom’s oil facilities.
The announcement came as an American official told Reuters that the U.S. believes the attacks originated in southwestern Iran.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said the attacks were a “warning” to Riyadh over its war in Yemen. He did not directly respond to allegations that Iran was behind the drone attacks that struck the Abqaiq plant and Khurais oil field, disrupting an estimated 5.7 million barrels of the Saudi kingdom’s crude oil production per day. But he claimed Houthis targeted the country over the long-running war in Yemen.
“We don’t want conflict in the region … Who started the conflict? Not the Yemenis. It was Saudi Arabia, the Emirates, America, certain European countries and the Zionist regime [Israel] which started the war in this region,” Rouhani said, according to Al Jazeera.
Separately, in comments made on the sidelines of the Cabinet meeting, Iranian Defense Minister Amir Hatami again denied Iran was behind the drone attacks, according to state media. Iranian-backed Houthi rebels claimed responsibility for the attacks.