UNITED NATIONS, September 16. /TASS/. Russia warns against hasty conclusions about who was behind the drone attacks on Saudi Aramco’s oil facilities, Russian Permanent Representative to the United Nations Vasily Nebenzya said on Monday.
"We strongly advice not to jump at conclusions about who organized this attack," he said at a meeting of the United Nations Security Council. "It only further destabilizes the tense situation both in Yemen and in the entire region."
He stressed that the attack on Saudi oil facilities "is causing serious concern." "We strongly condemn the strikes at non-military targets and the destruction of economic infrastructure," he said. "Escalation is fraught with serious problems on the path of searching for solutions to the Yemeni problem and will create a threat of a large scale regional confrontation. We call on all the parties concerned to show restraint and avoid such dangerous incidents in future."
Saudi Aramco facilities in the east of Saudi Arabia were attacked by ten drones in the small hours on September 14. Yemeni Houthi rebels from the Ansar Allah movement have claimed responsibility for the incident. In particular, the world’s biggest oil refinery near the city of Abqaiq and a refinery near Khurais, where Saudi’s second largest oil field is located, came under the attack, which was followed by a strong fire. Later, the authorities said the fire had been localized.
Following the incident, US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo accused the Iranian authorities of being behind these attacks, saying there were no evidence they had originated from Yemen.
The Iranian foreign ministry dismissed Pompeo’s allegations as groundless.
Armed confrontation between government forces and Houthi rebels from the Ansar Allah movement has been going on in Yemen since August 2014, reaching the most active phase in March 2015 after the Saudi-led coalition invaded the country. Along with Saudi Arabia, the coalition includes Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, Pakistan and Sudan.
The conflict has entailed the most severe humanitarian crisis of today, with more than 24 million Yemenis, or about 80% of the country’s population, being in need of humanitarian assistance and the number of internally displaced people exceeding three million, according to the United Nations data.