TEHRAN – An Iranian MP says Yemeni forces’ attack on Saudi oil installation is a result of Saudi crimes against the Yemeni people.

According to the New York Times, drone attacks by Yemen struck two key oil installations inside Saudi Arabia on Saturday, damaging facilities that process the vast majority of the country’s crude output and raising the risk of a disruption in world oil supplies.
 
“This was a response to Saudi crimes in Yemen and the massacre of civilians and inattention to the requests of the Yemeni people,” Assadollah Gharekhani told ISNA in an interview published on Wednesday. 

However, the United States has blamed Iran for the attack, claiming intelligence indicates Iran was the staging ground for a debilitating attack on Saudi Arabia’s oil industry. 

Gharekhani, who sits on the Majlis Energy Committee, said, “The United States is seeking to dishearten the Arab sheikhs and introduce Iran as a threat so that under the excuse of providing security for them to get more money from them.” 

The MP was indirectly referring to tens of billions of dollars in arms purchases by certain Arab countries, including Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, from the United States.

Congress passed legislation this year demanding an end to United States military support for the war, including arms sales to Saudi Arabia. Pentagon officials, meanwhile, have concluded on their own that the war has degenerated into an unwinnable quagmire and have urged the Saudis for months to try to negotiate an end to the fighting. But President Trump has repeatedly vetoed legislation cutting off American support for the war.
  
The Iranian lawmaker called the Yemeni attack on the Aramco oil installations was a “unique act”, adding the Yemeni had already made drone attacks on Saudi airports.

On Yemenis’ capability to launch advanced drones to hit Saudi oil facilities, he said, “Today technology is not just a monopoly of the great powers.”

He added the transfer of technology has become possible and now the Yemenis, after more than four years of resistance, have succeeded to produce modern weapons and technologies. 

The MP also cast doubt on the Saudis’ capability to defend themselves against drone attacks, asking, “Why Saudi Arabia which claims it has most advanced weapons did not respond in time?”

The MP said these developments show that the balance of power has changed in the region. 

By blaming Iran for the attack, the MP said, Washington wants to “strike more deals (with Arabs) and gain more money from regional Arab states”.

The MP said the reason behind attributing attacks on oil facilities to Iran is that the Trump administration’s maximum pressure campaign against Iran has failed and therefore it tries to “justify its failed policies by blaming Iran”.

“Today, Americans and the Zionists have become disappointed of ‘maximum pressure’ against Iran and they have resorted to great deceits.”
  
The parliamentarian went on to say that through such clamors the Trump administration is trying to bring Iran to the negotiating table “but Iran is smart enough and will not be swayed by such outcries”.

He blamed the Trump administration for the tension between Tehran and Washington, saying, “It was America that violated the JCPOA and unilaterally withdrew from it.”

PA/PA