Hudaydah Op. Shows Saudi Playing Blame Game on Aramco Attacks: Zarif
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Iran’s foreign minister said Saudi Arabia’s recent attack against the Yemeni port city of Hudaydah was a clear indication that Saudis themselves “don't believe the fiction of Iranian involvement” in the 14 September attacks on the Saudi Aramco facilities.
“Since the Saudi regime has blamed Iran—baseless as that is—for the attacks on its oil facilities, curious that they retaliated against Hodaideh in Yemen today—breaking a UN ceasefire. It is clear that even the Saudis themselves don't believe the fiction of Iranian involvement,” Zarif tweeted early on Saturday.
The Saudi-led coalition on Friday launched a military operation north of Yemen’s port city of Hudaydah against what it described as “legitimate military targets”, an incident that could aggravate regional tensions after the weekend attacks on Saudi oil installations.
Yemen’s Houthi movement told al-Masirah TV that the coalition had breached the UN agreement reached in Sweden.
The Hudaydah ceasefire and troop redeployment agreement was reached last year at peace talks in Sweden, as a trust-building measure to pave the way for talks to end the Saudi-led war.
The coalition said it had destroyed four sites used in assembling remote-controlled boats and sea mines to help protect the freedom of maritime navigation.
“These sites are used to carry out attacks and terrorist operations that threaten shipping lines and international trade in the Bab al-Mandab Strait and the southern Red Sea,” coalition spokesman Colonel Turki al-Malki said in a statement.
Malki added that the Houthis used Hudaydah to “launch ballistic missiles, drones, booby-trapped and remote-controlled boats, as well as for indiscriminate deployment of sea mines.”
The Yemeni forces on Saturday launched drone attacks on two plants at the heart of Saudi Arabia's oil industry, including the world's biggest petroleum processing facility.
The attacks came in retaliation for the Saudi-led coalition’s continued aggression on the Arabian Peninsula country.
Since March 2015, Saudi Arabia and some of its Arab allies have been carrying out deadly airstrikes against the Houthi Ansarullah movement in an attempt to restore power to fugitive former president Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi, a close ally of Riyadh.