The UN confirms that the missiles used in the attack on Saudi Arabia's refineries were of "Iranian origin"
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has informed the UN Security Council on Thursday that the cruise missiles used in the attack on several Saudi oil facilities and the international airport in this country are of "Iranian origin". This has been confirmed by Guterres in a report to which the Reuters news agency has had access, in which the UN confirms the American theory that the Tehran government could be behind this attack.
The document sent to the Security Council also warns that the seized items are of a similar design to those produced by a commercial entity in Iran and that some of the weapons that were delivered to the country between February 2016 and April 2018 bear markings in Farsi. Guterres also noted that "these items could have been transferred in a manner inconsistent with a Security Council resolution on the Iranian nuclear issue itself. "The engines of these planes showed similarities to an Iranian engine designated Shahed 783, which was presented by Iran at a military exhibition in May 2014," the Bloomberg news agency said.
Washington - which in September 2019 already accused Iran of being behind this attack - has urged the Security Council, made up of 10 elected members and five permanent members that are China, the United States, France, the Russian Federation and the United Kingdom, to extend the arms embargo to Iran; a request with which two major powers such as Russia and China, who have already announced that they will exercise their veto power, disagree.
The UN Secretary General reports twice a year to the Security Council on the implementation of the arms embargo on Tehran, among other issues. The UN leader has issued this report after examining the remains of the weapons used in the attacks on a Saudi oil facility in Afif in May, on Abha International Airport in June and August, and on Saudi Aramco's oil facilities in Khurais and Abqaiq in September 2019.
In this investigation, the UN has determined that "the cruise missiles used in the four attacks are of Iranian origin", as are the drones used in the May and September attacks. The UN Secretary General has assured that, in a letter sent on 22 May by Iran's special envoy to the UN, Tehran showed its intention to "continue to cooperate actively with the United Nations".
For her part, the US Ambassador to the UN, Kelly Craft, has reported that they will soon present a draft resolution to extend the arms embargo to Iran. "I urge all member states to avoid provocative rhetoric and actions that could have a negative impact on regional stability," Guterres wrote in the report presented to the Security Council, which will have to discuss these accusations at the end of June.
In December, the United Nations regretted that it was "unable to provide independent corroboration" that the weapons used in these attacks were of Iranian origin, something that it has been able to do in recent months with the preparation of this report. The United States, Saudi Arabia and some European powers have repeatedly accused Tehran of being behind the attacks carried out in September, the authorship of which was claimed by the Huthis rebels, who have the support of Tehran in the conflict that is devastating Yemen.
Saudi Arabia reported in September an attack with a total of ten drones on two facilities of the Aramco oil company, one of them located in Abqaiq, while the other was in the Hijrat Jurais oil field. The attack on the heart of the Saudi oil industry frustrated the extraction of 5.7 million barrels of crude oil per day, or about 50 percent of the company's production.
Over the past week, the U.S. has ratified its sanctions against two companies for their alleged link to Tehran's nuclear program. The companies affected are Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines (IRISL) and E-Sail Shipping Company, its subsidiary in the Chinese city of Shanghai. The head of US diplomacy, Mike Pompeo has warned that "those in the commercial and maritime industries who do business with Iran must use carriers or shipping methods other than IRISL or E-Sail; any government, entity or individual who chooses to continue doing business with IRISL and/or E-Sail now risks being exposed to sanctions".
The UN report comes at a critical time for the Islamic Republic, one of the countries most affected by the coronavirus. The distance between Washington and Tehran has increased in recent years, mainly after the abandonment of the nuclear pact by the United States, a decision taken by Trump because he considered that this country was not complying with its commitments.