沙特阿拉伯已正式将最近针对沙特主要石油基地的袭击归咎于其头号竞争对手伊朗。伊朗表示，它已为潜在冲突做好准备，尽管它试图避免这种结果。

土耳其本萨利赫马利基上校是沙特领导的打击也门安萨尔阿拉(又称胡塞武装)什叶派穆斯林运动联盟的发言人，他周三主持了一场新闻发布会，会上他展示了一系列武器，据称这些武器被用于周六对阿布卡拉克石油加工场和附近Khurais油田的袭击。他将包括18架无人驾驶飞机和7枚陆地攻击巡航导弹在内的武器归因于“伊朗政权和伊朗IRGC”，这是指精英伊斯兰革命卫队。

马利基展示了据称显示“攻击方向从北向南”的证据，并展示了“先进的能力”。他说，这表明它并不像胡塞人声称的那样来自也门，他认为胡塞人在他们的叙述中“只是遵从IRGC的命令”。

马利基说:“现在我们正在努力确切知道发射点，无论是谁发射了无人驾驶飞行器巡航导弹，都将对袭击沙特基础设施和沙特平民负责。”他补充说，“这不是针对Saudi Aramco或沙特王国，而是对国际社会的袭击；蓄意破坏全球经济和能源行业的企图。”

当被问及沙特如何确定发射地点时，马利基告诉记者，“这里的一些组成部分，伊朗政权和IRGC，他们试图抹去信息，然而，我们已经收集了足够的信息。”然而，他拒绝回答后续问题，即他是否已经确定发动袭击的是否是伊朗部队本身。

胡塞人举行了他们自己的新闻发布会，发言人叶海亚·萨雷(Yahya Saree)在会上双倍强调了该组织的说法，即他们的部队使用无人机实施了攻击，作为他们威慑平衡行动2的一部分。和马利基一样，萨雷展示了袭击现场的假想卫星图像，并声称“美国人试图在行动后用他们的侦察机发布伪造的图像，以使它们看起来不那么严重”，威胁对沙特阿拉伯和阿拉伯联合酋长国的进一步袭击。

与此同时，伊朗长期以来一直否认其直接支持侯赛因与沙特领导的联盟四年冲突的说法。在周三早些时候通过瑞士驻德黑兰大使馆发给华盛顿的一份官方照会中，伊朗官员继续否认他们的国家参与了周六的袭击，并警告他们的任何部队，对伊朗的任何袭击都将受到不仅限于袭击来源的立即反应。

据半官方的塔斯尼姆通讯社报道，伊朗最高国家安全委员会秘书阿里·沙姆哈尼周三表示，“伊朗的战略政策是缓和紧张局势，避免任何冲突，并通过对话解决地区危机”。然而，他警告说，“该国已做好充分准备，监测攻击伊斯兰共和国或其利益的任何意图或企图，并将通过对可能的邪恶行动做出压倒性和全面的反应，给侵略者以最严重的打击。”

特朗普周三早些时候在推特上表示，他“刚刚指示财政部长大幅增加对伊朗的制裁”前一天，总统说“看起来”伊朗是这次袭击的幕后黑手，但没有达到国务卿麦克·庞贝的程度，他很快在周六指责德黑兰。

德黑兰和利雅得之间的紧张局势在美国领导的孤立伊朗日益增长的地区影响力的运动。唐纳德·特朗普总统被视为伊朗的敌人沙特阿拉伯和以色列的坚定盟友，他在2015年退出了一项核协议，指责伊朗伊斯兰共和国利用制裁救济进一步支持激进组织和发展导弹技术，并实施新的经济限制，使美国与中国、欧盟、法国、德国、俄罗斯和英国产生分歧，这些国家仍然支持该协议。

 

北京和莫斯科也谴责了沙特阿拉伯的袭击，但呼吁华盛顿和国际社会不要先发制人地指责德黑兰的潜在参与。俄罗斯总统弗拉基米尔·普京也提出出售沙特阿拉伯先进的S-300和S-400地对空防御系统，就像他在伊朗和土耳其两国领导人的新闻发布会上分别做的那样。

沙特阿拉伯大部分部署美国的防御系统，显然没有发现周六据报道的低空袭击。然而，据国营的塔斯社报道，克里姆林宫发言人德米特里·佩斯科夫星期三说，普京和沙特王储穆罕默德·本·萨尔曼当天早些时候打电话时没有讨论潜在的武器销售问题。

伊朗最高领导人阿亚图拉·阿里·哈梅内伊否认伊朗总统哈桑·鲁哈尼和特朗普可能在即将召开的联合国大会上会晤，或在美国坚持其核协议承诺之前举行任何其他德黑兰-华盛顿对话。特朗普还取消了此前提出的无先决条件会面的提议。
 

SAUDI ARABIA OFFICIALLY BLAMES OIL ATTACK ON IRAN, WHICH SAYS IT'S READY FOR WAR BUT DOESN'T WANT ONE

 

Saudi Arabia has officially blamed recent attacks against key oil sites in the kingdom on its top rival, Iran, which has said it was prepared for a potential conflict, though it sought to avoid such an outcome.

Colonel Turki bin Saleh al-Maliki, a spokesperson for the Saudi-led coalition battling the Ansar Allah, or Houthi, Zaidi Shiite Muslim movement in Yemen, hosted a press conference Wednesday in which he presented a range of weaponry allegedly used in Saturday's attacks on the Abqaiq oil-processing site and nearby Khurais oil field. He attributed the weapons, which included 18 drones and seven land-attack cruise missiles, to "the Iranian regime and the Iranian IRGC," a reference to the elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

Maliki displayed evidence purporting to show that "the direction of the attack came from north to the south" and demonstrated "advanced capability." This he said, suggested it did not originate from Yemen as was claimed by the Houthis, who he argued were "just following the order of the IRGC" in their narrative.

"Right now we are working to know exactly the launch point, whoever launched the UAV, the cruise missile, will take the accountability for attacking the Saudi infrastructure and the Saudi civilians," Maliki said, adding that "this not against Saudi Aramco or the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, it was an assault on the international community; a deliberate attempt to disrupt the global economy and the energy industry."

Asked how Saudi Arabia could determine the launch site, Maliki told reporters that "some of the components here, the Iranian regime and the IRGC, they are trying to erase the information, however, we have collected enough information." He declined, however, to answer a follow-up question as to whether he had determined whether or not it was Iranian forces themselves who launched the attack.

The Houthis held their own press conference, where spokesperson Yahya Saree doubled down on the group's claims that their forces carried out the attacks using drones as part of their Operation Deterrence Balance 2. Like Maliki, Saree displayed supposed satellite imagery of the attack sites and claimed the "Americans tried to publish fabricated images after the operations with their surveillance aircraft to make them seem less serious," threatening further attacks against both Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

Iran, meanwhile, has long dismissed claims that it directly backed the Houthis in their four-year conflict with the Saudi-led coalition. In an official note sent earlier Wednesday to Washington via the Swiss embassy in Tehran, Iranian officials continued to deny their country's involvement in Saturday's attacks and warned any their forces any attack on Iran would be met with an immediate reaction not confined to the source of the strike.

Iranian Supreme National Security Council Secretary Ali Shamkhani said Wednesday that "Iran's strategic policy is to reduce tensions, avoid any conflict and resolve regional crises through dialogue," according to the semi-official Tasnim News Agency. He warned, however, that "the country is fully prepared to monitor any intention or attempt to attack the Islamic Republic or its interests and will surprise aggressors most severely through a crushing and comprehensive response to possible evil actions."

In a tweet, Trump said earlier Wednesday that he had "just instructed the Secretary of the Treasury to substantially increase Sanctions on the country of Iran!" The day before, the president said it was "looking like" Iran was behind the attack, but did not go as far as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who quickly blamed Tehran on Saturday.

Tensions between Tehran and Riyadh have played out amid a U.S.-led campaign to isolate Iran's growing regional influence. Seen as a staunch ally of Iran's foes Saudi Arabia and Israel, President Donald Trump left a 2015 nuclear deal, accusing the Islamic Republic of using sanctions relief to further support militant groups and develop missile technology and imposing new economic restrictions that have put the U.S. at odds with China, the European Union, France, Germany, Russia and the United Kingdom, all of whom still support the agreement.

 

Beijing and Moscow have also condemned the attack in Saudi Arabia, but have called on Washington and the international community to hold off on making preemptive accusations as to Tehran's potential involvement. Russian President Vladimir Putin also offered to sell Saudi Arabia advanced S-300 and S-400 surface-to-air defense systems as he did Iran and Turkey, respectively, during a press conference alongside the leaders of both countries.

Saudi Arabia has mostly deployed U.S. defenses, which apparently failed to detect Saturday's reportedly low-flying strikes. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Wednesday, however, that the potential arms sale was not discussed during a phone call earlier in the day between Putin and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, according to the state-run Tass Russian News Agency.

Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has dismissed the possibility of any meeting between Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and Trump at the upcoming United Nations General Assembly, or any other Tehran-Washington dialogue until the U.S. upheld its nuclear deal commitments. Trump has also rescinded his previous offers to meet without preconditions.