{"id":644165,"date":"2019-05-29T09:00:06","date_gmt":"2019-05-29T09:00:06","guid":{"rendered":"
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US National Security Adviser John Bolton said that attacks on oil tankers off the coast of the United Arab Emirates this month were the work of \u201cnaval mines almost certainly from Iran\u201d, without offering evidence.<\/p>\n

The comments by Bolton on Wednesday came during a briefing to journalists in the Emirati capital of Abu Dhabi.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s clear that Iran is behind the Fujairah attack. Who else would you think would be doing it? Someone from Nepal?\u201d he told journalists at the US embassy briefing regarding the May 12 attacks.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no doubt in anybody\u2019s minds in Washington, we know who did this and it\u2019s important Iran knows we know,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Iran has denied involvement in the oil-tanker attacks and has accused the US of fabricating crises in the Gulf.<\/p>\n

Bolton also said there was a failed attack recently on the Saudi oil port city of Yanbu.<\/p>\n

The city is the final point of Saudi Arabia\u2019s east-west pipeline, which was recently targeted by Yemen\u2019s Houthi rebels in a coordinated drone attack.<\/p>\n

Bolton said he suspected Iran was behind the failed attack, but did not elaborate or give evidence for the claim. Tehran has denied any involvement in the attacks.<\/p>\n

Officials in Saudi Arabia could not be immediately reached for comment.<\/p>\n

Bolton also told reporters that the US was trying to be prudent in responding to alleged activities of Iran and its proxies in the region and dismissed the idea there was any difference between his positions and that of US President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am the national security adviser, not the national security decider,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Bolton said that there was \u201cno reason\u201d for Iran to breach the terms of its 2015 nuclear deal with world powers other than to seek atomic weapons.<\/p>\n

Speaking to journalists ahead of meetings he planned with top Emirati officials, Bolton said: \u201cThere\u2019s no reason for them to do it unless it is to reduce the breakout time to nuclear weapons.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s national security adviser, a longtime hawk on Iran, is visiting the UAE amid heightened tensions across the Gulf.<\/p>\n

Bolton tweeted he had arrived in the Emirates for meetings on Wednesday \u201cto discuss important and timely regional security matters\u201d.<\/p>\n

The US recently deployed an aircraft carrier and B-52 bombers to the Gulf over a still-unexplained threat it perceives from Tehran. The US also pulled nonessential diplomats out of Iraq and sent hundreds more troops to the region.<\/p>\n

The US unilaterally pulled out of a nuclear deal with Iran and world powers a year ago.<\/p>\n

Iran now says it too will begin backing away from the accord.<\/p>\n

On Monday, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said Iran was not seeking nuclear weapons and accused the US of causing regional tensions and \u201churting the Iranian people\u201d.<\/p>\n

Iran\u2019s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei \u201clong ago said we\u2019re not seeking nuclear weapons \u2013 by issuing a fatwa (edict) banning them\u201d, Zarif tweeted.<\/p>\n

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