Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Abbas Mousavi forcefully rejected Sunday unsubstantiated charges by by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and US Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) regarding the recent drone attacks that caused serious damage to two crucial Saudi Arabian oil installations.
"It has been around 5 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," Seyyed Abbas Mousavi said in a statement.
"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 Americans adopted the 'maximum pressure' policy against Iran, which, due to its failure, is leaning towards 'maximum lies'," he added.
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.
Late Saturday, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo directly blamed Iran for the attack on Twitter, without offering any evidence to support his charge.
Reuters reported that a senior commander for the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps took a more strident tone than the Foreign Ministry, insisting that Iran was ready for "full-fledged" war, the semiofficial Tasnim news agency reported.
"Everybody should know that all American bases and their aircraft carriers in a distance of up to 2,000 kilometers around Iran are within the range of our missiles," said Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh, the head of the Revolutionary Guards' air force.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said Saturday that it's time for the U.S. to weigh an attack on Iranian oil refineries if the nation continues its "provocations." He warned that such a raid would "break the regime's back."
