The Houthi rebel faction in Yemen warned on Monday of more attacks on Saudi Arabia’s oil infrastructure, two days after strikes that interrupted much of the kingdom’s production heightened tensions between Iran and the United States and raised fears of a wider armed conflict.
United States officials have said that Iran was responsible for the attacks on Saturday, the most audacious and damaging blow to Saudi Arabia in the four and a half years of Yemen’s civil war, and have cast doubt on whether they were launched from Houthi territory in Yemen. But the American officials offered little evidence for their claims and did not address who had carried out the strikes or from where.
The Trump administration has previously blamed Iran for the actions of the Houthis, and United Nations experts say that Iran has supplied the group with drones and missiles that have greatly expanded its offensive capacity.
Iran has denied any involvement in the attacks on Saturday, and the Houthis insisted on Monday that they had carried out the strikes using drones, while threatening more, although they made no reference to whether Iranian equipment or training played a role.
A spokesman for the Houthi military, Brig. Gen. Yahya Sare’e, “warned companies and foreigners not to be present in the factories that were hit by our strikes because we may target them again at any moment,” Almasirah, the Houthi news organization, reported on Monday.
The Houthis can strike at will anywhere in Saudi Arabia, he said, and their actions against the kingdom “will expand and be more painful.”
