Putin says Iranian leader assured him Iran unrelated to attacks on Saudi oil infrastructure
MOSCOW. Oct 13 (Interfax) - Russian President Vladimir Putin said his Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani had assured him that Iran is unrelated to the recent attacks on the Saudi Aramco oil facilities.
Asked in an interview with RT Arabic, Sky News and Al Arabiya whether he received any assurances that Iran is unrelated to those attacks and that Iran was not involved in them in any way during his recent meetings with Rouhani, Putin replied: "Yes, that is exactly what he said. He said that Iran had nothing to do with this."
The text of the interview is available on the Kremlin website.
Facilities of Saudi Aramco, Saudi Arabia's national oil company, had been attacked by drones in the early hours of September 14. In particular, the attack targeted Saudi Arabia's largest oil processing facility, Abqaiq, and the large Khurais oil field, knocking out production of 5.7 million barrels per day, or about half the country's and almost 6% of the world's oil output.
Houthi rebels in Yemen took responsibility for the attack, but the U.S. accused Iran of being behind it. Tehran has denied the accusations.
Several days later, Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman said Saudi Arabia fully restored oil deliveries to consumers, using partially its oil reserves, as it had recovered only half of the lost oil output by the time. Saudi Arabia planned to fully restore oil output by the end of September.