In this September 20, 2019, file photo, taken during a trip organized by the Saudi information ministry, workers fix the damage in Aramco's oil separator at a processing facility after the September 14 attack blamed on Iran in Abqaiq near Dammam in the Kingdom's Eastern Province. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil, File)
The United Nations has been unable to confirm Iranian involvement in a dramatic attack on oil facilities in eastern Saudi Arabia earlier this year, US Secretary General Antonio Guterres said Tuesday.
Drones and cruise missiles were used in the September 14 bombardment on sites in Abqaiq near Dammam in the Kingdom’s Eastern Province, knocking out half of the kingdom’s crude production and fueled a record surge in prices.
Saudi officials, the United States and several European countries accused Iran of responsibility for the attack, which Tehran has denied.
UN investigators had been given access to debris of the weapons used in the attack, Guterres said in a six-monthly report to the Security Council on Iran’s nuclear program, seen by AFP on Tuesday.
The Saudi military displays what they say are an Iranian cruise missile and drones used in recent attack on its oil industry at Saudi Aramco’s facilities in Abqaiq and Khurais, during a press conference in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, September 18, 2019. (Amr Nabil/AP)
But the investigation was not able to “independently corroborate that the cruise missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles used in these attacks are of Iranian origin,” the report said.
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An investigation into the attack is continuing and will be submitted to the Security Council when finished, Guterres said.
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