Saudi Arabia says Iranian weapons used to attack oil facilities

[RIYADH] 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.

Ongoing investigations of "debris and wreckage" show "it belongs to the Iranian regime," Turki al-Maliki, a spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen, told reporters in Riyadh on Monday. He said initial findings suggest the attack was not launched from Yemen, contradicting claims by Iranian-backed Houthi rebels that they carried out the attack using a swarm of long-range drones with more sophisticated engines.

"We are working right now to spot the launch point of those attacks," he said.

Saturday's attacks caused an unprecedented surge in oil prices and cast a shadow over preparations for the sale of a stake in Saudi Aramco that could be the world's biggest initial public offering.

While President Donald Trump hasn't directly blamed Iran for the attacks, Secretary of State Michael Pompeo has. Two US officials said the location of the damage and weapons used suggest the attack was not launched by the Houthis, who have been fighting the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen for four bruising years.

Mr Al-Maliki said evidence of Iranian involvement would be released, without saying when. Iran denied involvement.

"Accusing Iran of the attacks is in line with the US's maximum-lies policy," said Abbas Mousavi, spokesman at the foreign ministry in Tehran. "Such accusations are unsurprising, unacceptable and baseless."

Russia, a leading Iranian ally in the Middle East, called on countries not to rush to conclusions over who was responsible, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

In a tweet on Monday, Mr Trump cast doubt on Iran's denials of responsibility, citing the Islamic Republic's claim that a US drone shot down over the Persian Gulf in June was actually over Iranian waters.

"Remember when Iran shot down a drone, saying knowingly that it was in their "airspace" when, in fact, it was nowhere close," Mr Trump wrote. "They stuck strongly to that story knowing that it was a very big lie. Now they say that they had nothing to do with the attack on Saudi Arabia. We'll see?"

Oil posted its biggest ever intraday jump, briefly surging above US$71 a barrel after the strike removed about 5 per cent of global supplies and raised the specter of more destabilisation in the region.

BLOOMBERG