LONDON, September 22. /TASS/. Saudi Arabia has pledged to do whatever it takes to protect its territory from Iran, while branding military operation as the last resort to resolve the conflict, Saudi Arabia's Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Adel al-Jubeir said in an interview with British Sky News on Friday.
"We have a responsibility to defend our country and to ensure that no harm comes to our country or our people or our residents and so we will do whatever it takes to prevent our country from sustaining damages," he said. The diplomat also said that Saudi Arabia sees war as the last resort. "War is always the last option," he underlined.
Then the minister strongly rebuked Tehran. "The Iranians have engaged in aggressive behavior for 40 years. They have destroyed Lebanon through Hezbollah. They have sent militias to destroy Syria. They have militias in Iraq, they have militias in Yemen. They provide these terrorist groups with ballistic missiles and drones, they have set up cells in various countries - Kuwait, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, other countries - to cause terrorist attacks," al-Jubeir claimed.
The Saudi Aramco oil facilities situated in the east of Saudi Arabia were attacked by ten drones in the early hours of September 14. The Ansar Allah movement’s Yemeni Houthi rebels claimed responsibility for the attack. In particular, the world’s biggest oil refinery near the city of Abqaiq, where many western specialists reside, and a refinery near Khurais, where Saudi’s second largest oil field is situated, came under the attack. A huge blaze erupted at the two facilities. The attack and subsequent fires led to a plunge in the oil production of the biggest oil exporter in the world, dropping by 5.7 million barrels of crude oil production per day from the normal level of 9.8 million barrels for the kingdom.
On Wednesday, spokesperson for the Saudi Defense Ministry Turki al-Maliki held a press conference in Riyadh where he presented fragments of drones and cruise missiles, which, as he claimed, confirmed that Iran was behind the attacks. He announced that 18 Delta Wing drones were used in the attacks, equipped with a modernized positioning system, as well as seven Ya Ali cruise missiles. At the same time, he conceded that a precise location of their launch still had not been identified but confidently assured that it was not Yemen.