Iran was responsible for the attacks on two Saudi oil facilities earlier this month, leaders from the United Kingdom, France and Germany said in a joint statement, drawing a sharp response from a senior Iranian military official on Tuesday.
The three countries, all signatories to the Iran nuclear deal, issued the statement on Monday as British Prime Minister Boris Johnson hinted that the UK may withdraw from the 2015 agreement.
The drone attacks, carried out on September 14 against Saudi oil facilities has further raised tensions in the region, following the US President Donald Trump’s withdrawal from the Iran deal last year.
Johnson met with French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Monday on the sidelines of the annual United Nations gathering of world leaders, to coordinate their strategy on Iran.
“It is clear for us that Iran bears responsibility for this attack. There is no other plausible explanation,” the three leaders said in the joint statement released by France.
The three leaders pledged to try to ease tensions in the Middle East and urged Iran to “refrain from choosing provocation and escalation.”
But at the same time, Johnson had also suggested earlier that the UK would consider taking part in a US-led military effort to bolster Saudi Arabia’s defences in the Gulf — a move Tehran considers as a provocation.
In response to the allegations, Iran’s armed forces chief of staff, Major General Mohammad Baqeri, said on Tuesday that enemies who try to attack Iran will face “captivity and defeat”.
“We have repeatedly told the enemy that if there is any violation toward this country, they will face the same action that took place with the American drone and the English tanker,” according to the Tasnim news agency.
Earlier, Iran’s Foreign Minister Javad Zarif also denied the allegations saying a military attack by his country would have completely knocked out Saudi’s Arabia’s main oil-producing facility.
“If Iran was behind this attack, nothing would be left of this refinery,” Zarif told reporters in New York.
Zarif said Yemen’s Houthi rebels, who claimed responsibility, “have every reason to retaliate” for the Saudi-led coalition’s aerial attacks on their country.
He also stressed that on the eve of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani’s visit to the United Nations in New York City “it would be stupid for Iran to engage in such activity.”
Hillary Mann Leverett, a former White House and US State Department Official, told Al Jazeera that the European leaders are “jumping the gun” and have failed to present proof of their allegations.
“There is no proof. The French, the British and the Germans are not even waiting for a UN or international investigation, which the Saudis have themselves called for.”
Leverett said the conclusion of the three European powers also “underestimates, as they have for years, what the Yemenis, are capable of doing. And I think we all underestimated what the Yemenis are capable of doing much to our peril.”
Brian Hook, Trump’s top adviser on Iran, however insisted that Iran was behind the Saudi Arabia attacks, citing “intelligence and open source analysis”.
“The evidence including the complexity, scope and impact of the attack indicates that this is the case,” Hook said without presenting any proof.