On May 14, drones hit a pair of oil pipeline sites in Saudi Arabia. All
reports at the time were that the drones belonged to the Houthi movement
in Yemen, and the Houthis took credit for the strike.
US officials are suddenly drastically revising the story, and are now
accusing Iraqi militia movements of being behind the attack. In
particular, they are blaming Shi’ite militias who are aligned with Iran, which effectively means they are blaming Iran.
Which a month and a half after the fact doesn’t seem to be worth much.
And since officials were already accusing Iran of being behind the
Houthis’ attack, it doesn’t seem like they gain anything by changing the
story to a different group that still boils down to being an Iranian
proxy.
On top of it, this appears to be causing more problems for US relations
with Iraq, as Iraqi government officials are questioning where the US
came up with this assessment, and are seeing this as just another effort
to turn Iraq into a front for the US-Iran war.
The changing US assessment doesn’t seem to be coming with any actual
evidence, either, suggesting it is a sheer matter of convenience. In
mid-May, officials were keen to play up the Yemen War’s importance, and
now, they’re looking for excuses to spin Iraq as being on the side of
Iran as well.
US Blames Last Month’s Saudi Pipeline Attacks on Iraq Militias
Yemen's Houthi movement had already taken credit for the attacks
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