DUBAI,
United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran denied on Sunday it was involved in
Yemen rebel drone attacks the previous day that hit the world’s biggest
oil processing facility and an oil field in Saudi Arabia, just hours
after America’s top diplomat alleged that Tehran was behind the
“unprecedented attack on the world’s energy supply.”
The
attacks Saturday claimed by Yemen’s Houthi rebels resulted in “the
temporary suspension of production operations” at the Abqaiq processing
facility and the Khurais oil field, Riyadh said.
That
led to the interruption of an estimated 5.7 million barrels in crude
supplies, authorities said while pledging the kingdom’s stockpiles would
make up the difference. The amount Saudi Arabia is cutting back is
equivalent to over 5% of the world’s daily production.
While
markets remained closed Sunday, the attack could shock world energy
prices. They also increased overall tensions in the region amid an
escalating crisis between the U.S. and Iran over Tehran’s unraveling
nuclear deal with world powers.
Late
Saturday, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo directly blamed Iran for
the attack on Twitter, without offering evidence to support his claim.
“Amid
all the calls for de-escalation, Iran has now launched an unprecedented
attack on the world’s energy supply,” Pompeo wrote. “There is no
evidence the attacks came from Yemen.”
The
U.S., Western nations, their Gulf Arab allies and U.N. experts say Iran
supplies the Houthis with weapons and drones — a charge that Tehran
denies.
U.S. officials previously alleged at
least one recent drone attack on Saudi Arabia came from Iraq, where
Iran backs Shiite militias. Those militias in recent weeks have been
targeted themselves by mysterious airstrikes, with at least one believed
to have been carried out by Israel.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi on Sunday dismissed Pompeo’s remarks as “blind and futile comments.”
“The
Americans adopted the ‘maximum pressure’ policy against Iran, which,
due to its failure, is leaning towards ‘maximum lies’,” Mousavi said in a
statement.
Separately, Iraqi Prime Minister
Adel Abdul-Mahdi’s office issued a statement on Sunday denying the
drone attack came from there.
Iraq “abides
by its constitutions that prevents the use of its lands to launch
aggressions against neighboring countries,” the statement said.
First
word of Saturday’s assault came in online videos of giant fires at the
Abqaiq facility, some 330 kilometers (205 miles) northeast of the Saudi
capital, Riyadh.
Machine-gun fire could be
heard in several clips alongside the day’s first Muslim call to prayers,
suggesting security forces tried to bring down the drones just before
dawn. In daylight, Saudi state television aired a segment with its local
correspondent near a police checkpoint, a thick plume of smoke visible
behind him.
President Donald Trump called
Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to offer his support for
the kingdom’s defense, the White House said. The crown prince assured
Trump that Saudi Arabia is “willing and able to confront and deal with
this terrorist aggression,” according to a news release from the Saudi
Embassy in Washington.
Saudi Aramco describes its Abqaiq oil processing facility in Buqyaq as “the largest crude oil stabilization plant in the world.”
The
facility processes sour crude oil into sweet crude, then transports it
onto transshipment points on the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea or to
refineries for local production. Estimates suggest it can process up to 7
million barrels of crude oil a day. By comparison, Saudi Arabia
produced 9.65 million barrels of crude oil a day in July.
The
Khurais oil field is believed to produce over 1 million barrels of
crude oil a day. It has estimated reserves of over 20 billion barrels of
oil, according to Aramco.
There was no
immediate impact on global oil prices as markets were closed for the
weekend. Benchmark Brent crude had been trading at just above $60 a
barrel.
___
Associated
Press writers Amir Vahdat in Tehran, Iran, Aya Batrawy in Dubai, United
Arab Emirates, and Bassem Mroue in Beirut contributed to this report.
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