UN investigators are unable at this stage to confirm Iran's involvement in the Sept. 14 attacks on oil facilities in Saudi Arabia, according to a semiannual report by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. this week to the Security Council.
"The UN Secretariat has been able to examine the wreckage of weapons used against an oil facility in Afif in May 2019, against Abha International Airport in June and August 2019, and against oil facilities of the Saudi company Aramco in Khurais and Abqaiq in September 2019 ", is written in this document obtained Tuesday by AFP.
"At this stage, it is not in a position to independently confirm that the cruise missiles and drones used in these attacks are of Iranian origin and have been transferred in non-compliance with resolution 2231" which endorsed the international nuclear agreement concluded in 2015 with Tehran, adds the report.
Antonio Guterres said that the investigation work on the raids continues and promises to submit to the Security Council conclusions once it is completed.
By the end of September, France, Germany and the United Kingdom had joined the United States accusing the Islamic Republic of being "responsible" for the attacks carried out two weeks earlier. "It is clear to us that Iran bears the responsibility for this attack, there is no other plausible explanation," the Europeans said in a joint statement.
Use of 25 weapons systems in total
The Iranian government has formally denied any involvement in these raids conducted by drones and cruise missiles, and that these materials are of Iranian manufacture, as affirmed by Saudi Arabia.
Antonio Guterres's report states that 18 drones were used at Abqaiq, four cruise missiles at Khurais, while three other cruise missiles missed their targets. That's a total of 25 weapon systems, says the document.
After the attacks, Saudi Arabia had asked the UN secretariat to send experts to its soil to inspect the debris and investigate.
Their work is detailed in the report by Antonio Guterres, which, as every six months, also covers resolution 2231, the ballistic activities of Tehran regularly criticized by the West, and the implementation of the nuclear agreement.
The United States denounced in May 2018 this agreement and reintroduced heavy economic sanctions against Iran. In 2019, Tehran decided as a retaliatory measure to overcome many of its commitments related to this agreement.
In his report, Antonio Guterres stresses the importance of "full application" for all parts of the international agreement and calls on Iran "to return" to all measures taken in 2019 that contravene its commitments. He also calls on him to refrain from any further measures further away from the nuclear agreement.
With AFP
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