“Arab blood vs. Arab oil / A primer on U.S. policy,” wrote Zarif in a tweet on Thursday, then listed some instances of many crimes committed in Yemen by the Saudi-led, US-backed coalition since March 2015:

“۴ yrs of indiscriminate bombardment of Yemen – 100,000 dead Yemenis – 20M malnourished Yemenis – 2.3M cholera cases,” which Zarif said equated to “carte blance for culprits.”

However, “Retaliatory Yemeni strike on oil storage tanks,” Zarif said equated to “unacceptable “act of war”.

He was referring to the attack carried out by Yemeni forces on Abqaiq and Khurais oil facilities run by the Saudi state-owned oil company before dawn Saturday. The attack knocked out more than half of Saudi crude output, or 5% of global supply, prompting Saudi and US officials to claim without any evidence that it probably originated from Iraq or Iran.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi dismissed Pompeo’s allegations that Iran was to blame for the brazen attacks, as “blind and fruitless remarks” that were “meaningless” in a diplomatic context.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif also responded to Pompeo following the allegations, saying the United States had failed in its campaign of “maximum pressure” and was now “turning to ‘max deceit’.”