\nNEW YORK: A unique internal component enabled UN investigators to prove that cruise missiles and drones used to attack Saudi Arabia last year were Iranian.<\/p>\n
\nThe UN examined debris from weapons used in strikes on an oil facility in Afif in May, on Abha International Airport in June and August, and on the Saudi Aramco oil processing plants in Khurais and Abqaiq in September.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cThe secretariat assesses that the cruise missiles and\/or parts thereof used in the four attacks are of Iranian origin,\u201d UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres wrote in a report to the Security Council. Drones used in the May and September attacks were also \u201cof Iranian origin,\u201d Guterres said.<\/p>\n
\nThe strikes against Aramco facilities caused extensive damage and briefly interrupted production of half the Kingdom\u2019s oil output. France, Germany and Britain joined the US in September last year in accusing Iran of carrying out the attacks. Tehran has denied any involvement.<\/p>\n
\nHowever, the UN investigation \u201cconfirms what we knew before,\u201d security analyst Dr. Theodore Karasik told Arab News.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\u201cThese missiles are consistent with Iranian-designed systems, particularly internal components that can be traced back to Tehran\u2019s production lines, or from illicit imports for its indigenous arms industry,\u201d said Karasik, of Gulf State Analytics in Washington.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cForensic work shows that these Iranian missiles contain a specific type of gyroscope that was found in missile wreckage after the attacks on Saudi Arabia.\u00a0 The same gyroscopes have been found in maritime interdiction operations in and around the Gulf of Oman and the Gulf of Aden.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cThe gyroscopes, which give the missiles their unique capability, are a trademark of Iran\u2019s missile program.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cThe launch of these missiles from northern Yemen and southern Iraq, as determined by telemetry models and data, seals the case that these attacks on Saudi Arabia were conducted by Iran in violation of international law.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nUN investigators also examined weapons seized by the US off the coast of Yemen in November 2019 and February this year, destined for Iran-backed Houthi militias.<\/p>\n
\nGuterres\u2019 report said some of those weapons, such as anti-tank missiles, were of Iranian origin, and others, such as optical weapons sights, had been delivered to Iran. The UN chief urged member states to \u201cavoid provocative rhetoric and actions that may have a negative impact on regional stability.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nMeanwhile the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen said on Saturday it had intercepted and destroyed a ballistic missile targeting the border city of Najran. The coalition said the missile was fired from the Yemeni city of Saada, and some people were slightly injured by fragments of the weapon when it was destroyed.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Revealed: How UN investigation proved missiles that hit Saudi Arabia were Iranian NEW YORK: A unique internal component enabled UN investigators to prove that cruise missiles and drones used to attack Saudi Arabia last year were Iranian. The UN examined debris from weapons used in strikes on an oil facility in Afif in May, on…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-42933","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-spotlight_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42933","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=42933"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42933\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=42933"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=42933"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=42933"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}