Saudi Arabia sees consensus blaming Iran for attack

Saudi Arabia on Wednesday hailed what it called a growing consensus that rival Iran carried out this month's attack on the kingdom's oil infrastructure.

Saudi Arabia's minister of state for foreign affairs, Adel al-Jubeir, said that the kingdom's initial investigation "indicated that it was Iranian weapons" and that it was consulting with allies.

"I think there's a consensus that such behavior is not acceptable," he told reporters at the United Nations.

He promised that the Saudi probe would be "very thorough." "And we will come up with different options. And we will select the appropriate options as a response to the attacks against the kingdom," he said.

France, Germany and Britain this week said they agreed with US findings that Iran was responsible for the air strikes on the Abqaiq plant and the Khurais oil field which knocked out half of Saudi Arabia's oil production. Iran denies responsibility for the attacks, which have been claimed by Yemen's Iranian-backed Huthi rebels.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, interviewed on Tuesday by Fox News, said that US intelligence may have been confused by an inscription on the weapons identified with Shia Islam. Iranians are overwhelmingly Shiite and the Huthis share religious connections.

Rouhani said French President Emmanuel Macron, pressed by the Iranian leader, said that the Huthi rebels were not believed to be capable of such a range -- a position shared by US intelligence.

"And in response, I told him that, 'You are unaware of their capabilities,'" Rouhani said.