Cruise missiles that struck Saudi Aramco last year were of Iranian origin: UN
BEIRUT, LEBANON (11:00 A.M.) – The Secretary-General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, told the Security Council in a report on Thursday that the cruise missiles that struck two oil facilities and an international airport in Saudi Arabia last year were of Iranian origin.
Guterres said in the report that several of the weapons and related materials that the United States seized in November 2019 and February 2020 were “of Iranian origin” as well, according to Reuters.
Guterres continued that the design features of some of them were similar to those produced by a commercial entity in Iran, or bearing Persian marks, and that some were transferred from the Islamic Republic between February 2016 and April 2018.
He stated that “these pieces may have been transferred in a manner inconsistent with” the 2015 Security Council resolution stipulating the agreement between Tehran and world powers to prevent it from developing nuclear weapons.
The Iranian mission to the United Nations in New York did not respond to a request for comment on the UN report.
The attacks of Saudi Aramco facilities took place last year on the Abqaiq and Khurais facilities in the eastern region of the Kingdom.
The facilities were targeted by the Ansarallah forces, which used drones and cruise missiles in their wide-scale attack.
It is noteworthy to mention that the U.S. Navy announced last February that it had “confiscated 150 illegal missiles on a ship in the Arabian Sea.”
The U.S. Navy added that “the components of the confiscated missiles in the Arabian Sea are Iranian designed,” noting that “the weapons confiscated in the Arabian Sea include 3 Iranian (surface-to-air) missiles.”
Comments