RIYADH — Iran bears responsibility for the attacks on Saudi Aramco facilities on Sept. 14 and that the Kingdom was working with allies to decide an appropriate response, Saudi Arabian minister of state for foreign affairs Adel Al-Jubeir said on Saturday. Al-Jubeir said the attacks were undertaken with Iranian weapons and it was for this reason that Iran should be held accountable for the incident, adding: "We are certain that the attacks did not come from Yemen but from the north. Investigations will prove that." Saudi Arabia has already said that the investigation so far shows that Iranian weapons were used and the attack originated from the north, and that it was pinpointing the exact location In a press conference held in the Saudi capital, Al-Jubeir also said that the attacks on Aramco facilities were also targeting global energy security and that Saudi Arabia would take appropriate steps to respond if investigations confirm that Iran is responsible. "The Kingdom will take appropriate measures based on the results of the investigation, to ensure its security and stability," Al-Jubeir said. Saudi Arabia has rejected claims from Yemen's Iranian-backed Houthis that they carried out the strikes, the largest-ever assault on Saudi oil facilities in the world's top oil exporter. Tehran has denied any involvement in the attacks. Saudi Arabia is consulting with its allies to "take the necessary steps", Al-Jubeir said, urging the international community to take a stand. "The Kingdom calls upon the international community to assume its responsibility in condemning those that stand behind this act, and to take a firm and clear position against this reckless behavior that threatens the global economy," he said. "The Iranian position is to try to divide the world and in that it is not succeeding."Saudi Arabia on Friday revealed extensive damage to key oil facilities following weekend aerial strikes that were blamed on Iran, but vowed to quickly restore full production even as regional tensions soar. Yemen's Tehran-linked Houthi rebels, who on Friday announced a sudden halt to attacks on Saudi Arabia, claimed the strikes on state giant Aramco's facilities in Khurais and the world's largest oil processing facility at Abqaiq. But Washington has pointed the finger at Tehran, condemning an "act of war" which knocked out half of Saudi Arabia's oil production and on Friday prompted US President Donald Trump to sketch out the latest in a series of economic sanctions against Iran. Abqaiq was struck 18 times while nearby Khurais was hit four times in a raid that triggered multiple explosions and towering flames that took hours to extinguish, Aramco officials said. "Many critical areas of the (Abqaiq) plant were hit," an Aramco official said, pointing out the strikes had a high degree of precision. A towering stabilization column, normally silver, had been charred black with a gaping hole blown in the shaft's base. A separator plant also appeared ravaged in the raids and was surrounded by scaffolding and white-helmeted workers. "There are 112 shift workers here in normal times. Now 6,000 workers are involved in restoration work," said Aramco official Khaled Al-Ghamdi, pointing at damaged infrastructure. Aramco said it was shipping technical equipment from the US and Europe to speed up repairs. Aramco flew dozens of international journalists to the two sites to show it was speeding up repairs, giving rare access to the nerve centre of the world's largest oil producer as it seeks to shore up investor confidence ahead of a planned initial public offering (IPO). "We will have production at the same level as before the strike by the end of this month — we are coming back stronger," asserted Fahad Al-Abdulkareem, an Aramco general manager, during the visit to Khurais. Badly warped thick metal piping — peppered with shrapnel during the aerial strikes — lay strewn around the area of the Khurais attack. But Abdulkareem said that 30 percent of the Khurais plant was operational within 24 hours of the initial strikes. — With inputs from Agencies
