U.A.E. Says Attack on Saudi Arabia Is ‘Dangerous Escalation’

(Bloomberg) -- Saturday’s attack on Saudi oil facilities is a “dangerous escalation” and it can’t be linked to the war in Yemen, the United Arab Emirates said.

“Justifying the unprecedented terrorist attack on Aramco facilities by linking it to developments in Yemen is totally unacceptable,” U.A.E.’s Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash said on Twitter. “The attack is a dangerous escalation in itself.”

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The comments by Gargash, whose country is part of the Saudi-led coalition fighting a war in Yemen, follow Iranian President Hassan Rouhani saying the attacks were the result of a years-long war that Saudi Arabia has waged on Yemen.

Saudi Arabia said preliminary findings show Iranian weapons were used in the attack on one of its key oil installations, but stopped short of directly blaming the Islamic Republic for the strikes that cut its crude output by half and rattled oil markets.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Sunday that there was no evidence the raids were carried out from Yemen. He blamed Iran instead, and President Donald Trump said the U.S. is “locked and loaded depending on verification” of the culprit. Iranian officials have denied responsibility.

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