TEHRAN - Iranian government spokesman Ali Rabiei said on Wednesday that Britain, France and Germany’s statement which blames Iran for the Aramco attacks is “unacceptable”.

“For the government’s viewpoint, the three European countries’ statement in condemning Iran and accusing Iran in issues related to Yemen and Saudi Arabia is unacceptable. Talking without evidence is an act which has been repeatedly taken recently,” Rabiei told reporters.

He noted that the three European countries, which are signatory to the 2015 nuclear deal, have taken such a position under the influence of the United States.

In a joint statement on Monday, the leaders of France, Germany, and the United Kingdom strongly condemned the September 14 attacks on oil facilities in Saudi Arabia, and pinned the blame on Tehran.

“It is clear to us that Iran bears responsibility for this attack. There is no other plausible explanation,” the statement read.

In a post on his Twitter account on Monday, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif told the three European states that “parroting absurd U.S. claims” against Iran is “Inconsistent with JCPOA”, the official name for the nuclear agreement.

Also in a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron at the United Nations in New York on Monday, President Rouhani said the statement is based on “groundless blame game”.
 
The Iranian Foreign Ministry strongly condemned the European statement, saying it is a “farcical reasoning” that “there is no other plausible explanation”.

“Politically motivated accusations against governments along with adoption of policies that support the child-killer regime of Saudi Arabia through sending weapons to the country are dangerous, and the countries which issued this statement must bear responsibility for consequences,” the Foreign Ministry statement said.

“The Islamic Republic of Iran strongly condemns and dismisses the irresponsible claims made by the leaders of Britain, France and Germany about the attacks by the Yemeni government’s Armed Forces on the Saudi (oil) facilities, and stresses that holding a third-party government accountable for strikes that have occurred during a full-blown war between the Saudi and Yemeni parties and for which the Yemeni side has formally claimed responsibility, is per se a provocative and highly destructive measure, let alone that such a measure has been taken before any investigations, without providing any clue and proof, and has been only based upon the ridiculous justification that ‘there is no other explanation’,” Tasnim news agency quoted the statement as saying.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif told CNN in an interview aired on Monday, “There is no evidence. And it would be a miracle to produce evidence, because it did not take place. Had we been behind this, it would have been disaster for Saudi Arabia. Nothing that they could have been repaired. The reason I am taking this to Yemen is because it is Yemen. It is the Yemeni war.”

NA/PA