Page 11 - IRANRptOct19

Erdogan, whose geopolitical strategy involves maintaining a challenging set of alliances with the US, Russia and Iran, has difficult relations with the Saudis, particularly since the killing of Saudi dissident and journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Saudi Arabia’s Istanbul consulate by a hit squad of agents sent from Riyadh in October last year.
The US, major European powers and Saudi Arabia have all blamed the attacks on Iran, while Tehran insists it was the Houthi group fighting Saudi-backed forces in the Yemen civil war that staged the strikes.
“I don’t think it would be the right thing to blame Iran,” Erdogan said in an interview with Fox News broadcast on September 25. He added that the attacks came from several parts of Yemen.
“If we just place the entire burden on Iran, it won’t be the right way to go. Because the evidence available does not necessarily point to that fact,” Erdogan added.
The attack on the heartland of Saudi Arabia’s oil industry damaged the world’s biggest petroleum-processing facility and knocked out more than 5% of global oil supply and half of Saudi oil production capacity.
2.7 ​Iran’s Zarif issues “all-out-war” warning
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has warned that there will be “all-out war” should Iran be attacked in retaliation for the missile strikes that wiped out half the production capacity of Saudi Arabia’s oil industry.
His threat of conflict made in​ ​an interview with CNN​ came after US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo referred to the drone and cruise missile strikes on the Saudis as an “act of war”. Zarif’s comments raise the stakes for US President Donald Trump who, should he decide that a military response to the attacks is required, would risk his 2020 re-election campaign being dogged by the kind of conflict abroad that might prove very unpopular with many of his supporters. Iran knows Trump finds himself in an awkward position and it may be seeking to drive that point home.
Zarif also demanded that the Saudis hand over the evidence that they claim proves the attacks on the Abqaiq oil processing facility and the Khurais oilfield came from Iran rather than from Houthi-occupied Yemen,​ ​as both Tehran and the Houthis contend​.
“I make a very serious statement about defending our country,” Zarif said in the interview. “I am making a very serious statement that we don’t want to engage in a military confrontation.”
According to CNN, Zarif was unable to offer proof that the Iranian-backed Houthis, who have fought the Saudis in a bitter civil war in Yemen for the past four years, launched the drones and missiles. “I cannot have any confidence that they did it because we just heard their statement,” he said. “I know that we didn’t do it. I know that the Houthis made a statement that they did it.”
11​ IRAN Country Report​ October 2019 www.intellinews.com