US ‘Maximum Pressure’ Policy Edging Towards ‘Maximum Lies’: Iran

Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Abbas Mousavi said on Sunday “the Americans adopted the ‘maximum pressure’ policy against Iran, which, due to its failure, is leaning toward ‘maximum lies’.”

The spokesman made the comment in reaction to remarks by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Senator Lindsey Graham, who accused Iran of being responsible for the recent Yemeni drone attacks on Saudi oil facilities in the country’s east.

“It has been around five years that the Saudi-led coalition has kept the flames of war alive in the region by repeatedly launching aggression against Yemen and committing different types of war crimes, and the Yemenis have also shown that they are standing up to war and aggression,” Mousavi explained.

“Such accusations as well as blind and futile comments are pointless and not understandable within the framework of diplomacy,” he said.

“In international relations, even ‘animosity’ must have some minimum requirements and logical frameworks to be believable, but US official have ignored even these minimum requirements,” the spokesman added.

“Such comments and actions are more like planning by secret and intelligence services to tarnish the image of a country in order to set the scene for future moves,” he said.

The spokesman concluded by saying that the only way to establish tranquillity in the region and put an end to the useless crisis in Yemen is to halt attacks and aggression by the Saudi-led coalition, stop Western countries’ political and arms support for the aggressors, and make efforts to work out political solutions.

Yemeni drones hit two oil facilities of Saudi Arabia’s state oil giant Aramco in the country’s east on Saturday, causing huge fires before dawn.

A spokesman for Saudi Arabia’s interior ministry said in a statement that the attacks targeted two Aramco factories in Buqayq and Khurais.

The statement did not identify the source of the attacks, but Yemen’s Houthi movement later claimed responsibility in an announcement on Al Masirah TV.

The movement’s military spokesman General Yahya Sare’e said 10 drones were deployed against the sites in Buqayq and Khurais, and pledged to widen the range of attacks on Saudi Arabia.

“This was one of the largest operations which our forces have carried out deep inside Saudi Arabia. It came after careful intelligence and cooperation with honorable and free people inside Saudi Arabia,” he said without elaboration.

Saudi oil production and exports have been disrupted after the drone attacks, according to informed sources.