Gulf and Iraqi officials told MBN this week that Iran has sent messages to Saudi Arabia denying responsibility for an attack earlier this month on the kingdom’s East-West oil pipeline, while suggesting Iraqi Shiite factions were behind the strike.
These messages, the officials involved said, included an offer to help Riyadh identify those responsible for the Sept. 10 attack on a 750-mile oil route, vital for Saudi crude to reach the Red Sea amid ongoing disruptions around the Strait of Hormuz.
Tehran has not publicly confirmed any such messages.
A regional intelligence source told MBN that a week ago, a Saudi official called a counterpart in Iraq and told him that “There has been an attack against us … we can respond.” Aggressions were however postponed through U.S. mediation, according to a Gulf diplomatic source who spoke to MBN.
On Sept. 10, a pod of drones launched from Maysan in southeast Iraq, targeted the East-West pipeline in both the Riyadh and Medina regions, causing casualties as well as damage to a supply of 5 to 7 million barrels of crude per day, prompting Saudi Arabia’s Energy Ministry to shut down the pipeline “as a precaution” for several days before resuming operations.
In a statement on Sept. 11, Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Ministry condemned “in the strongest terms,” the targeting by “several drones coming from Iraq,” saying the Kingdom had “chosen not to respond at this stage” at the request of Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi, who asked that his government be given an opportunity to investigate.
The Saudi statement made no mention of U.S. mediation to delay a response.
Zaidi spokesman Sabah al-Numan further acknowledged “the Kingdom’s position and its response to the efforts made by Iraq to contain the situation,” reiterating that “Iraq’s land and airspace will not be used as a launching point for attacks against any country.”
A source in Zaidi’s office said urgent investigations were ongoing and that the government “does not rule out the involvement of parties other than the traditional factions known to operate in Iraq.”
As MBN previously reported, citing an Iraqi intelligence source, the pipeline attack on Saudi Arabia was carried out by newly formed groups operating as small cells and linked to a hardline faction within Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a Washington-designated terrorist organization since 2019.
According to preliminary information obtained by Iraqi security agencies, relayed to MBN by a source close to the Iran-backed Popular Mobilization Forces, the group that carried out the attack was small, having broken away from another IRGC armed faction. Iraq-based factions have also told Baghdad they were prepared to provide information about those who targeted Saudi Arabia, the source said.
Citing Iraqi intelligence sources, MBN has also reported that non-Iraqi figures entered the country early this year, and were directing drone launches from Iraqi territory, with most of the operations originating near the border with Iran. In August, Iraq’s Counter Terrorism Service and Intelligence Service uncovered a cell in central Babil province, preparing to carry out drone attacks outside Iraq. Its members were arrested and equipment was seized.
Iraq has for years struggled with the presence of Iran-aligned armed factions operating outside Tehran’s control. Since taking office in May, President Zaidi has sought to place such factions’ weapons under government authority by Sept. 30, but efforts to disarm by that deadline have stalled. The Iraqi government and Iran-aligned armed factions have instead reached an agreement, according to MBN sources, under which strategic weapons would be surrendered in June 2027.
Adapted and translated from the original Arabic.
