Iran has accused hardliners in the United States and elsewhere of attempting to create incidents to ratchet up tensions in the region.
Earlier on Tuesday, Yemen’s Houthi rebels attacked two oil pumping stations in Saudi Arabia, two days after Saudi oil tankers were sabotaged off the coast of the UAE. Saudi Arabia called the Houthi attack a “cowardly” act.
The strikes caused minor damage to one of the stations supplying a pipeline running from the Eastern Province to Yanbu Port on the Red Sea, Saudi Energy Minister Khalid Al Falih said in a statement carried by the state-run Saudi Press Agency. A fire was brought under control but Saudi Aramco stopped pumping oil through the pipeline
Al Falih said: “These attacks prove again that it is important for us to face terrorist entities, including the Houthi militias in Yemen that are backed by Iran.” He also promised the production and export of Saudi oil would not be interrupted. Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree said seven drones carried out the strikes on Saudi oil installations. “It was a successful operation. We found assistance from people living in Saudi Arabia and we had excellent intelligence,” he said.
But Iran accused hardliners of attempting to orchestrate incidents to escalate tension.
“We … talked about the policies that hardliners in the US administration as well as in the region are attempting to impose,” Zarif told Iranian state TV in India after a bilateral meeting with Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj.
“We raised concerns over the suspicious activities and sabotage that are happening in our region. We had formerly anticipated that they would carry out these sorts of activities to escalate tension.”On Sunday, four ships – two Saudi, one Norwegian and one Emirati – were damaged off the coast of the UAE in what Emirati officials described as acts of sabotage near the port of Fujairah.
The incident happened 140km south of the Strait of Hormuz, where about one-third of all oil traded by sea passes through.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Tuesday there would be no war with the US despite mounting concerns.
In comments to senior officials carried by state television, Khamenei also reiterated that Iran would not negotiate with the US on a new nuclear deal.
“There won’t be any war. The Iranian nation has chosen the path of resistance,” he said.