US says Iran linked to drone attack
arrange a meeting with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani at the upcoming UN assembly.
Saudi i nt e r i or minist r y spokesman Mansour al-Turki said there were no casualties in the attacks in the kingdom’s Eastern Province.
But the full extent of the damage was not immediately clear as reporters were not allowed near the plants where Sa udi a ut hor i t i e s s wi f t l y beefed up security.
The attacks on the Abqaiq plant – Aramco’s largest oil processing facility – and nearby Khurais, which hosts a massive oil field “resulted in production suspension of 5.7 million barrels of crude oil per day”, the company said.
Aramco CEO Amin Nasser said work was underway to restore production and a progress update would be provided in the next two days.
Explosions at the plant also led to a production halt of an estimated two billion cubic feet of gas per day, Prince Abdulaziz said.
T he UN’s Yemen envoy Martin Griff it hs said he was “extremely concerned” over t he latest attacks, which a lso d re w s w i f t condem nat ion from Riyadh’s Gulf a llies, t he UAE, Bahrain and Kuwait.
In recent months, the Huthi rebels have carried out a spate of cross-border missi le a nd drone attacks targeting Saudi air bases and ot her facilities in what t hey say is reta liation for a long-running Riyadh-led bombing campaign on rebelheld areas in Yemen.
L a s t mont h, a n a t t a c k c l a i med by Hut h i r e bel s spa rked a f i re at A ra mco’s Shaybah natural gas liquefact ion faci l it y – close to t he Emirati border – but no casua lt ies were repor ted by t he company.
Rebel drones also targeted two oil pumping stations on Saudi Arabia’s key east-west pipeline in May, shutting it down for several days.
Gr o w i n g r e b e l a t t a c k s underscore how Saudi infras t r u c t u r e , i n c l u d i n g o i l installations, are increasingly vulnerable to the Huthis’ steadily advancing weaponry – f rom ba l l ist ic missi les to unmanned drones.
The Abqaiq plant, which Aramco says plays a “pivotal role” in its operations, has been targeted by militants in the past.
I n a n at t ack cla i med by a l-Qaeda in Febr ua r y 2006, suicide bombers with explosive-laden vehicles attempted to penet rate t he processing pla nt, k i l l i ng t wo sec u r it y guards.
The two bombers also died in the attack, which failed to breach the compound, authorities reported at the time.
The US and Saudi Arabia have blamed Tehran for multiple attacks on tankers in the Gulf, and in June, Trump called off airstrikes against Iran at the last minute after it downed a US drone.
The latest attacks come as Saudi Arabia accelerates preparations for a much-anticipated initial public offering of Aramco, the world’s most profitable company.
The mammoth IPO forms the cornerstone of a reform programme envisaged by the powerful crown prince to wean the Saudi economy off its reliance on oil.
Aramco is ready for a twostage stock market debut including an international listing “very soon”, its CEO Amin Nasser told reporters on Tuesday.