UK's Johnson says Iran behind attacks on Saudi oil sites

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson accused Tehran of being behind attacks on Saudi oil installations, in remarks to reporters en route to New York where he will meet with Iran's president.

"I can tell you that the UK is attributing responsibility with a very high degree of probability to Iran for the Aramco attacks," he said, cited by Britain's Press Association news agency on Monday.

He is due to meet with President Hassan Rouhani at the UN General Assembly in New York.

He will also discuss the attacks at a joint meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

"We think it very likely indeed that Iran was indeed responsible for using both UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles), both drones and cruise missiles," Johnson told reporters.

"Clearly the difficulty is, how do we organise a global response? What is the way forward? And we will be working with our American friends and our European friends to construct a response that tries to de-escalate tensions in the Gulf region."
Johnson said: "Clearly if we are asked either by the Saudis or the Americans to have a role then we would consider in what way we could be useful."