Tehran's response was not long in coming. After US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo spoke about an "Iranian act of war" following drone strikes on Saudi tankers, Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Thursday September 19, that the United States or Saudi Arabia would trigger an armed conflict if they came to attack Tehran.

Asked by the American television channel CNN about what would be "the consequence of a US or Saudi military strike on Iran", Mohammad Javad Zarif answered with a serious air: "A total war."

"We do not want war, we do not want to engage in a military confrontation, we think an armed conflict based on a hoax is awful, but we are not afraid when it comes to defending our territory, "added the Iranian minister.

On Twitter, Mohammad Javad Zarif denounced Thursday the "agitation" orchestrated, he said, around the recent attacks on Saudi oil facilities to prepare world opinion for a war against Iran. "'Act of war' or AGITATION for a WAR?", He wrote in response to remarks made Wednesday by Mike Pompeo.

"They want to blame Iran"

Riyadh, for its part, said Tehran had "unquestionably sponsored" these attacks carried out by air and claimed by the Houthi rebels of Yemen, backed by Tehran. "It's fabricated," Javad Zarif told CNN.

Donald Trump hinted that he did not exclude any "option" against Iran after these attacks. Since Sunday, Iran has repeatedly rejected the US and Saudi charges holding him responsible for attacks on facilities of the Saudi oil group Aramco.

Iranian President Hassan Rohani, however, described the raids as a "warning" by "Yemenis" in Riyadh, which since 2015 has led an armed coalition in Yemen against the Houthi rebels. Iran, which denies arming the latter, regularly denounces the coalition's air strikes, which, according to the UN, are at the origin of the worst humanitarian catastrophe on the planet.

With AFP