Iranian crisis in the face of international criticism

Noura Bendari

Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif said his country had not attacked oil facilities in Saudi Arabia.

He added in an interview with CNN on September 24 that the Houthi militia had claimed responsibility for the attacks.

Iran, he said, has documents to prove this.

Zarif’s statements prove that his country wants to shrug the charge of being responsible for the attacks off itself.

He said Iran had not supplied the Houthis with the drones used in the attacks. Zarif added that the Houthis had succeeded in attacking the Saudi oil facilities with rockets they succeeded in acquiring earlier.

Saudi Arabia, he said, had not presented any proof of Iranian involvement in the attacks.

Illuminating evidence

There is evidence that Iran is responsible for the attacks. The American privately owned National Public Radio revealed on September 18 that satellite images showed Iranian preparations for the attacks.

Some American officials told the radio that these images prove that Iran launched the attacks from its territory.

The Iranian regime tries, meanwhile, to find a way out of this crisis, especially after the international community had stepped up criticism of Tehran. This can explain a Houthi declaration that the Yemeni militia would suspend attacks on Saudi Arabia.

September 22, the American newspaper, The Wall Street Journal, said the Iranian regime had forced the Houthis to claim responsibility for the attacks. Some Houthi officials, the newspaper said, had testified that their movement was forced by Tehran to claim responsibility for the attack.

Iranian affairs specialist Ahmed Iqbal said the attacks on the Saudi oil facilities had opened the door for fears from a widening of the scope of violence in the region.

He told The Reference that Iran offers support to the Houthis.

“Zarif says, however, that the Houthis had succeeded in developing their own arms capabilities,” Iqbal said. “This is impossible of course in the light of the siege imposed on Yemen at present.”