Top US Security Adviser Suspects Iran Behind Attack on Saudi Port

John Bolton is visiting the United Arab Emirates amid heightened tensions across the Persian Gulf.

U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton.

(Photo: AP/Yohei Kanasashi)

US president Donald Trump's national security adviser, John Bolton, says there was a failed attack recently on the Saudi oil-port city of Yanbu. He is visiting the United Arab Emirates amid heightened tensions across the Persian Gulf.

The comments came on Wednesday during a briefing to journalists in the Emirati capital of Abu Dhabi. Bolton's remarks mark the first time anyone has alleged that Yanbu was targeted during the ongoing Persian Gulf crisis.

Yanbu is the terminus, the final point, of Saudi Arabia's east-west pipeline. That pipeline was recently targeted by Yemen's Houthi rebels in a coordinated drone attack.

Bolton said he suspected Iran was behind the failed attack, but did not elaborate.

Officials in Saudi Arabia could not be immediately reached for comment.

Bolton said that there's "no reason" for Iran to breach the terms of its 2015 nuclear deal with world powers other than to seek atomic weapons.

"There's no reason for them to do . it unless it is to reduce the breakout time to nuclear weapons," he said.

Bolton also claimed that four oil tankers Emirati officials alleged were sabotaged off the coast of Fujairah were attacked "almost certainly by Iran." He declined to offer any evidence to support his comments.

Bolton dismissed the idea there was any difference between his position and Trump’s, saying: "I am the national security adviser, not the national security decider."

America recently deployed an aircraft carrier and B-52 bombers to the Persian Gulf over a still-unexplained threat it perceives from Tehran. The U.S. also pulled nonessential diplomats out of Iraq and sent hundreds more troops to the region.

The U.S. pulled out of Iran's nuclear deal with world powers a year ago. Iran now says it too will begin backing away from the accord.