Attack on Saudi Arabia a ‘dangerous escalation’ – UAE minister

Saturday’s attack on Saudi oil facilities is a “dangerous escalation” and it can’t be linked to the war in Yemen, the United Arab Emirates said.

“Justifying the unprecedented terrorist attack on Aramco facilities by linking it to developments in Yemen is totally unacceptable,” UAE’s minister of State for Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash said on Twitter. “The attack is a dangerous escalation in itself.”

تبرير الهجوم الإرهابي والغير مسبوق على منشآت أرامكو من باب تطورات حرب اليمن مرفوض تماما، فالهجوم على السعودية تصعيد خطير في حد ذاته، والموقع الصحيح لكل دولة عربية وكل دولة مسؤولة في المجتمع الدولي يجب أن يكون مع السعودية ومع استقرار المنطقة وأمانها.

— د. أنور قرقاش (@AnwarGargash) September 17, 2019

The comments by Gargash, whose country is part of the Saudi-led coalition fighting a war in Yemen, follow Iranian President Hassan Rouhani saying the attacks were the result of a years-long war that Saudi Arabia has waged on Yemen.

Saudi Arabia said preliminary findings show Iranian weapons were used in the attack on one of its key oil installations, but stopped short of directly blaming the Islamic Republic for the strikes that cut its crude output by half and rattled oil markets.

Read: Saudi says Iranian weapons used to attack oil facilities

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Sunday that there was no evidence the raids were carried out from Yemen. He blamed Iran instead, and President Donald Trump said the U.S. is “locked and loaded depending on verification” of the culprit. Iranian officials have denied responsibility.