The Houthi rebels in Yemen were not the ones who launched the drone and missile attack on Saudi oil infrastructure last September, a confidential report from the UN has revealed. Reuters, who saw the report, quoted its authors from the UN Security Council Yemen sanctions committee as saying “That despite their claims to the contrary, the Houthi forces did not launch the attacks on Abqaiq and Khurais on 14 September 2019.”
These findings will lend strength to U.S. and Saudi claims that the attacks originated in Iran, even though some disputed the evidence that the Saudi military presented for this claim. The U.S. and Saudi Arabia blamed Iran for the attacks soon after September 14, and Iran vigorously denied any responsibility.
The drone and missile attacks caused a fire at the Abqaiq oil processing facility and a production outage at the Khurais field, taking 5.7 million bpd in daily production offline. This caused a temporary spike in oil prices as Aramco struggled to restore production as quickly as possible.
At the time, media reported that the White House had ordered the Pentagon to plan several alternatives for a response to the Saudi attacks. However, President Trump warned that steps were not to be taken before Riyadh decided how to respond to the attacks. “No knee jerk reactions to this – it’s very systematic – what happens with patience is it prevents stupid moves,” an unnamed source familiar with the discussions told CNN a week after the attack.