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Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) on Saturday denied responsibility for a drone attack on the U.S. Embassy in Riyadh on March 3, claiming the attack was carried out by Israel.
The statement came after The Wall Street Journal published a report saying the Iranian attack on the embassy was more damaging than Saudi authorities had acknowledged.
The Journal reported that while the Saudi Defense Ministry had described a limited fire and minor damage, the blaze had in fact burned for hours and caused extensive destruction.
The IRGC condemned the report and claimed the attack “has absolutely nothing to do with the Iranian armed forces,” adding that given Israel’s strategy in the region, it was “certainly carried out by Zionists.”
The statement also warned Muslim countries about what it described as the “Zionist regime’s sedition in the region” and said it was essential that neighboring countries remain “vigilant against the American-Zionist movement’s seditious intent to destabilise and destroy the region.”
The Wall Street Journal reported Friday, citing U.S. officials, that the drone attack on the U.S. Embassy in Riyadh caused more damage than previously disclosed.
The attack occurred on March 3, when a drone bypassed air defenses in Riyadh’s Diplomatic Quarter and struck the American compound. A second drone followed, hitting the same location and causing another explosion.
The strikes, which took place at night, breached a secure part of the embassy where hundreds of employees would typically work, severely damaging three floors. The CIA station was among the affected areas.
According to the report, Saudi officials initially downplayed the attack, describing it as a minor fire with limited damage, but U.S. officials said the fire lasted for hours and caused significant, irreparable damage to parts of the embassy.
Later that night, additional drones were intercepted, with debris landing near a preschool. One drone appeared to target the residence of the top U.S. diplomat in Saudi Arabia, located only a few hundred feet from the embassy.
Officials said that had the attack occurred during working hours, it could have resulted in mass casualties, underscoring what they described as Iran’s ability to strike U.S. assets once thought to be secure.
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“It was able to produce an indigenously made weapon, fire it across hundreds of miles and put it into the embassy of their top opponent, which means they could have hit anything they wanted in the city,” said Bernard Hudson, a former CIA counterterrorism chief with extensive experience in Persian Gulf states, including Saudi Arabia.
“There’s been a complete blackout on the actual amount of damage done to these places,” he said about U.S. embassies and bases. “That feeds suspicions that a lot more damage may have actually happened.”
Regional tensions have escalated since the United States and Israel launched a joint offensive on Iran on Feb. 28, killing more than 1,340 people to date, including then-Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
Tehran has retaliated with drone and missile strikes targeting Israel, as well as Jordan, Iraq and Gulf countries hosting U.S. military assets.
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