The National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), a French-based Iranian political opposition group, has claimed that they have received leaked information from within the Islamic Republic that details Iran's involvement in the September 14 attacks on the Saudi Aramco oil facility, according to a Fox News report.
At a conference in Washington, the council asserted in a report that Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in the presence of President Hassan Rouhani and Foreign Minister Javid Zarif, gave the order on July 31 to attack the Saudi oil facility.
Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK), the political Islamic-militant branch of the NCRI – and major advocates of overthrowing the Iranian leadership with an endgame of replacing the government with their own socialist regime – have declared the information's validity, claiming it was obtained through informants within the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and the regime itself.
“The regime is counting on inaction of the international community in its aggression,” the report says, according to Fox. “As long as this regime exists, it will not cease its aggression.”
The MEK, once designated as a cult and terrorist organization by the US and UK, has fought for both the Iranian revolution as well as for past Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. However, their current stance of vehemently opposing the Iranian regime has earned them the respect and support of the Trump administration.
Iran has denied any involvement in the Saudi oil attacks. “Those who make the allegations must provide the needed proof to back up such allegations,” Rouhani said, adding that the Yemeni Houthi rebel group possesses long range missiles and have attacked Saudi Arabia before.
However, the NCRI report asserts that the attack was ordered at the highest levels of the regime and goes into vigorous detail surrounding the missiles and drones used, even claiming that they were able to determine where the weapons were made.
The main points of the report highlight specifics of where the missiles were manufactured and when IRGC commanders were deployed to carry out the attack, according to Fox.
The report continues that the attack was coordinated from the Omidiyeh Base in Iran, claiming new forces replaced the suspected IRGC assailants. However, “there is no information on their orders yet,” according to the NCRI.
“The simultaneous missile and drone attack on Saudi Arabia’s oil facilities on September 14, 2019, emanated from inside Iran and was a blatant act of war that Khamenei, Rouhani, Zarif and other regime heads were responsible for in deciding, approving and implementing,” the report concludes.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, as well as Riyadh, have accused Iran of leading attacks on Saudi oil plants that have cut the kingdom's output roughly in half, as they ruled out Yemeni involvement and denounced Tehran for engaging in false diplomacy.
Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthi rebel group claimed credit for the attacks on two plants in the heart of Saudi Arabia's oil industry, including the world's biggest petroleum processing facility.
US President Donald Trump has questioned Iran's claim that it had nothing to do with weekend attacks on a giant oil plant in Saudi Arabia that have cut off 5% of global crude output.
"[The] cruise missile and drone attack that hit two oil installations in Saudi Arabia came from Iranian soil," the Fox News Pentagon correspondent reported on September, citing US officials.
The Saudi-led military coalition battling Yemen's Houthi movement also said that the attack on Saudi Arabian oil plants was carried out with Iranian weapons and was not launched from Yemen, according to preliminary findings.
Coalition spokesman Colonel Turki al-Malki said that an investigation into September's strikes, which had been claimed by the Iran-aligned Houthi group, was still ongoing to determine the launch location.
"The preliminary results show that the weapons are Iranian, and we are currently working to determine the location... The terrorist attack did not originate from Yemen as the Houthi militia claimed," Malki told a press conference in Riyadh.
Britain, Germany and France backed the United States and blamed Iran on Monday for an attack on the Saudi oil facilities, urging Tehran to agree to new talks with world powers on its nuclear and missile programs, and regional security issues.
The Europeans issued a joint statement after British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron met at the United Nations on the sidelines of the annual gathering of world leaders.
European leaders have struggled to defuse a brewing confrontation between Tehran and Washington since Trump quit a deal last year that assures Iran access to world trade in return for curbs on its nuclear program.
"The time has come for Iran to accept negotiation on a long-term framework for its nuclear program as well as on issues related to regional security, including its missiles program and other means of delivery," Britain, France and Germany said in a joint statement.
"It is clear to us that Iran bears responsibility for this attack. There is no other plausible explanation. We support ongoing investigations to establish further details," the statement said.
Macron has led a European push over the summer to find a compromise between Washington and Tehran, and wants to use the UN meeting as an opportunity to revive diplomacy, though his efforts have stalled in recent weeks.
When asked about Macron's attempt to mediate, Trump said, "We don't need a mediator ... they [Iran] know who to call."
Reuters contributed to this report.
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