Yemen's Houthis dismiss Iran's involvement in Aramco attack

Yemen's Houthi rebels on Wednesday denied any involvement by Iran in their attack that targeted two Aramco oil plants in the eastern province of Saudi Arabia earlier this week.

Smoke billows from an Aramco oil facility in Abqaiq about 60km (37 miles) southwest of Dhahran in Saudi Arabia's eastern province on September 14, 2019. [File photo: AFP]

The group's spokesman Yahya Sarea made the remarks in a televised press conference aired from Sanaa minutes after Saudi Arabia displays fragments of the attack sites which are said to be the evident of the Iranian involvement.

"New Yemen (Houthi leadership) has become capable to response and hit deep into enemy territory ... More Saudi vital facilities will be burned if their aggression war and economic blockade continue," the Houthi spokesman said.

Sarea said that the drones used in the attack were locally made and can reach a range of up to 1,700 km, but he provided no evidence to support his group's claim.

The Houthi spokesman also vowed to target dozens of vital targets in Dubai and Abu Dhabi of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), "if the Saudi-led coalition war against Yemen continues."

"We will not stand idle, while our people are starving to death," Sarea said, pointing to Saudi Arabia and the UAE to take the threat seriously.

Saudi Arabia has been leading an Arab military coalition against Iran-allied Houthi rebels in Yemen for more than four years in support of the exiled internationally-recognized government of Yemeni President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi.

In Riyadh, spokesperson of the Saudi-led coalition Turki al-Maliki displayed fragments of "25 drones and cruise missiles" he said used in the attack on Aramco sites.