Adel Al-Jubeir
Adel Al-JubeirReuters

Saudi Arabia’s Minister of State for Foreign Affairs denied on Sunday that Riyadh was behind a suspected strike against an Iranian-owned oil tanker in the Red Sea.

“We did not engage in such behavior at all. This is not how we operate and that’s not how we did (it) in the past,” the minister, Adel al-Jubeir, told reporters in Riyadh, according to Reuters.

“The story is still not complete. So let’s wait and find out what happened before we jump to conclusions,” he added.

Iran said on Friday that an Iranian-owned tanker was hit by missiles which damaged two of the tanker's reservoirs.

Friday’s attack came a month after an attack on Saudi oil facilities which damaged the world’s biggest petroleum-processing facility and knocked out more than 5% of global oil supply.

The United States and European powers have blamed the attack on Iran, which denies any connection.

Jubeir said recently there must be consequences for the attack on his country’s oil facilities, stressing it “cannot go unanswered”.

Iran and Saudi Arabia are regional rivals which back opposing sides in the wars in Yemen and Syria, where the Iranian regime supports President Bashar Al-Assad while the Saudis back the rebels trying to oust him.

Saudi Arabia has repeatedly called on Iran to stop its “meddling” in the affairs of the kingdom's neighbors.

Iran has fired back, accusing Saudi Arabia of trying to “drag the entire region into confrontation”.

(Arutz Sheva’s North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Sukkot in New York. The time posted automatically on all Arutz Sheva articles, however, is Israeli time.)