Yemen’s Iran-aligned Huthi rebels claimed responsibility for the operation but Washington has squarely blamed Iran, with President Donald Trump saying the US is “locked and loaded” to respond

IRAN’S Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei meets his officials in Tehran on Tuesday as he rules out negotiations with the US, which blamed Tehran for attacks on Saudi oil installations. AFP

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AFP) — The weapons used to strike Saudi oil facilities were Iranian-made, the Riyadh-led coalition said Monday, heightening fears of regional conflict after the US hinted at a military response to the assault.

The weekend strikes on Abqaiq — the world’s largest oil processing facility — and the Khurais oil field in eastern Saudi Arabia sent oil prices spiking Monday.

Yemen’s Iran-aligned Huthi rebels claimed responsibility for the operation but Washington has squarely blamed Iran, with President Donald Trump saying the US is “locked and loaded” to respond.

US Defense Secretary Mark Esper said the US was preparing a response.

“The United States military, with our interagency team, is working with our partners to address this unprecedented attack and defend the international rules-based order that is being undermined by Iran,” he said in a tweet.

Saudi’s energy infrastructure has been hit before, but this strike was of a different scale, abruptly halting half the OPEC kingpin’s output — some six percent of the world’s oil supply.

The Saudi-led coalition, which is bogged down in a five-year war in neighboring Yemen, reiterated the assessment that the Huthis were not behind it, pointing the finger at Iran for providing the arms.

“All indications are that weapons used in both attacks came from Iran,” rather than Yemen, coalition spokesman Turki al-Maliki told reporters in Riyadh, adding that an investigation was underway.

The Huthis said they had fired 10 drones at the Saudi installations and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said the attacks were in self-defense.

“The people of Yemen have been forced to respond, they are only defending themselves,” he told a news conference in Ankara alongside Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

But the New York Times reported that US officials had satellite images showing the attacks, possibly with drones and cruise missiles, had come from the north or northwest.

That indicated they were fired from the northern Persian Gulf, Iran or neighboring Iraq, where Iran backs various armed groups.

Washington called the assault, which sparked huge fires in the heart of Saudi Arabia’s oil industry, an “unprecedented attack on the world’s energy supply.”

With the Huthis threatening further attacks, world powers urged restraint.

NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg told AFP in Baghdad on Monday that he was “extremely concerned” about escalating tensions following the attacks and accused Iran of “destabilizing” the region.

In Ankara, Russian President Vladimir Putin offered to sell Saudi Arabia a missile defense system.

Analysts noted the attacks had exposed the vulnerability of oil installations despite the kingdom splurging billions on sophisticated defense hardware.