A coming report by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres on the 2019 drone attack on Saudi oil refineries by the Houthi Islamist movement will highlight Tehran's role in arming the rebel group, UAE-based The National newspaper reported, citing a former US National Security Council official
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 12th June, 2020) A coming report by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres on the 2019 drone attack on Saudi oil refineries by the Houthi Islamist movement will highlight Tehran's role in arming the rebel group, UAE-based The National newspaper reported, citing a former US National Security Council official.
Per the UN Security Council's resolution 2231 on the Iranian nuclear problem, Guterres has to report to the council twice a year. His most recent report in December failed to confirm the use of Iranian drones and rockets during the attack.
Kirsten Fontenrose, a former Trump administration official and now an expert with the Atlantic Council think-tank, told an online meeting on Iran that the report would reveal proof that Iran had armed the Yemen-based Houthi militants, the newspaper said. The paper, she claimed, would link Tehran to the 2019 attacks on Saudi oil facilities "far more directly than the last report did."
She added that the report would show that late Iranian Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani, assassinated by a US drone strike in Iraq, was involved in breaching the arms embargo against Iran.
The report is due to be released next week, according to UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric.
In September 2019, a drone attack on Saudi Aramco forced the Saudi national oil company to shut down its Abqaiq and Khurais facilities, thus cutting the net oil output by more than half. The Houthis, who are the military wing of Yemen's Ansar Allah movement, claimed responsibility for the attack.
