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Iran is ready to destroy any country that launches an attack on its territory, a senior military official has said, after the US announced it was sending troops to support Saudi Arabia.

"Be careful and make no mistake," said the head of the Revolutionary Guards.

Iran denies the accusations by the US and Saudi Arabia that is behind recent attacks on two Saudi oil facilities.

A top Saudi official said "necessary measures" would be taken after the investigations were concluded.

Saudi Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Adel al-Jubeir did not give details of possible actions, but vowed to release the full findings of the investigations.

Yemen's Houthi rebels, who are backed by Iran, have said they were responsible for the attacks on 14 September.

Tensions between the US and Iran have escalated since US President Donald Trump abandoned a deal limiting Iran's nuclear activities and reinstated sanctions.

"Our readiness to respond to any aggression is definitive," Maj-Gen Hossein Salami told state media on Saturday. "We will never allow a war to enter our land."

"We will pursue any aggressor," he continued. "We will continue until the full destruction of any aggressor."

Maj-Gen Salami, who was speaking at the opening of an exhibition of captured drones in the capital, Tehran, added that "they will hit anybody who crosses" Iranian borders.

Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) are an elite branch of the country's military and have been designated a terrorist organisation by the US.

The US decision to send troops to Saudi Arabia was "defensive in nature", Defence Secretary Mark Esper told reporters on Friday.

He said Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates had requested military assistance, adding that the total number of troops who will be sent is yet to be decided.

The US forces would focus on boosting air and missile defences and would "accelerate the delivery of military equipment" to both nations, Mr Esper added.

Later on Friday, President Trump announced new sanctions against Iran while signalling that he wanted to avoid military conflict. The fresh sanctions, which Mr Trump described as "highest level", will focus on Iran's central bank and its sovereign wealth fund.

But he struck a more conciliatory tone in comments made in the Oval Office. "I think the strong person approach, and the thing that does show strength, would be showing a little bit of restraint," he said.

Analysis by Sebastian Usher, BBC Arab Affairs Editor

Iranian officials - both political and military - have issued a series of fierce warnings about any potential attack on their territory.

The US has adopted a less confrontational tone, but has continued with the Trump administration's policy of applying maximum pressure.

New sanctions targeting Iran's national bank and the mobilisation of more US troops in the Gulf are all part of this strategy.

What seems clear is that this remains a game of brinkmanship, with all sides still hoping to be able to pull back from a direct military confrontation.

But the pattern of dangerous escalation over recent weeks does not bode well for this strategy.

Strikes hit the Abqaiq oil facility and the Khurais oil field in Saudi Arabia a week ago, affecting the global oil supply.

On Wednesday, the kingdom's defence ministry showed off what it said were the remains of drones and cruise missiles proving Iranian involvement. The country was still "working to know exactly the launch point", a spokesman said.

The US has also said Iran was responsible. Senior officials have told US media outlets they had evidence the attacks originated in the south of Iran.

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Iran has repeatedly denied any role in the strikes, with President Hassan Rouhani calling the attacks a reciprocal act by the "Yemeni people".

On Wednesday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called the strikes "an act of war".

Mr Zarif warned on Twitter that Iran had no desire for war but "we will not hesitate to defend ourselves".

Meanwhile, the Saudi state oil company, Aramco, said it expects oil output to return to pre-attack levels by the end of September.

The Houthis have repeatedly launched rockets, missiles and drones at populated areas in Saudi Arabia. They are in conflict with a Saudi-led coalition which backs a president who the rebels had forced to flee when the Yemeni conflict escalated in March 2015.

Iran is the regional rival of Saudi Arabia and an opponent of the US, which pulled out of a treaty aimed at limiting Tehran's nuclear programme after Mr Trump took power.

US-Iran tensions have risen markedly this year.

The US said Iran was behind attacks on two oil tankers in the Gulf in June and July, as well as on another four in May. Tehran rejected the accusations in both cases.

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Iran warns it will 'destroy aggressors' after US troop ...

The Islamic regime in Iran is the worlds leading state sponsor of terror. For over 40 years their malign behavior and support for terrorist proxies has spread uncurbed. The implementation of the JCPOA, informally known as the 2015 Iran Nuclear Deal, has placed even more resources and money at the regimes disposal, furthering the reach and aggression of their malign activities. This is why the United States left the JCPOA and implemented decisive sanctions to curb the regimes ability to fund terror.

However, time is running out on international agreements restraining the Iranian regime. For example, the head of the brutal Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force (IRGC-QF), Qasem Soleimani, will be allowed to travel on October 18, 2020. Soon after, the Iranian regime will also be free to sell weapons to anyone, including terrorist proxies, and countries like Russia and China will be able to sell the Iranian regime tanks, missiles, and air defense equipment. This could start a new arms race in the Middle East and further destabilize the region and the world.

The international community must stand together against the Iranian regimes support for terror. Time is ticking.

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Iran - United States Department of State

Washington The recent attack onSaudi oil facilitieswas approved by Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, but only on the condition that it be carried out in a way that made it possible to deny Iranian involvement, a U.S. official told CBS News.

Saudi Arabia on Wednesday displayed wreckage of what it said were Iranian cruise missiles and drones. The circuit boards can be reverse engineered to determine the exact route the weapons flew. But U.S. officials said the most damning evidence is still unreleased satellite photos showing the Iranian Revolutionary Guard making preparations for the attack at Ahvaz Air Base in southwestern Iran.

From there, the weapons flew through Kuwaiti airspace some 400 miles to their targets in Saudi Arabia. The satellite photos were of no use in stopping the attack since their significance was not realized until after the fact. "We were caught completely off guard," one U.S. official said.

The Saudis showed grainy surveillance video of the incoming Iranian drones but none of the actual detonations that one U.S. official described as "a tidal wave of flame." Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who met with Saudi Arabia's crown prince, called it an "act of war." But President Trump said he's in no rush to respond.

"There's plenty of time to do something dastardly things. We'll see what happens," he said.

General Frank McKenzie, the top U.S. military commander for the Middle East, has asked permission to send three more batteries of anti-aircraft missiles to help Saudi Arabia protect its oil facilities. McKenzie has also drawn up plans for retaliatory strikes against Iranian oil facilities and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard.

When President Trump was briefed on the military options, he insisted Saudi Arabia would have to contribute to any retaliatory strike. He's scheduled to meet again with his national security advisors on Friday.

2019 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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DUBAI (Reuters) - Iran rejected accusations by the United States that it was behind attacks on Saudi oil plants that risk disrupting world energy supplies and warned on Sunday that U.S. bases and aircraft carriers in the region were in range of its missiles.

Yemens Houthi group claimed responsibility for Saturdays attacks that knocked out more than half of Saudi oil output or more than 5% of global supply, but U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the assault was the work of Iran, a Houthi ally.

The drone strikes on plants in the heartland of Saudi Arabias oil industry, including the worlds biggest petroleum processing facility, were expected to send oil prices up $5-10 per barrel on Monday as tensions rise in the Middle East.

Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi dismissed the U.S. allegation as pointless. A senior Revolutionary Guards commander warned that the Islamic Republic was ready for full-fledged war.

All American bases and their aircraft carriers in a distance of up to 2,000 kilometers around Iran are within the range of our missiles, the semi-official Tasnim news agency quoted commander Amirali Hajizadeh as saying.

State oil giant Saudi Aramco said the attack cut output by 5.7 million barrels per day, at a time when Aramco is trying to ready itself for what is expected to be the worlds largest share sale.

Aramco gave no timeline for output resumption. A source close to the matter told Reuters the return to full oil capacity could take weeks, not days.

Another source briefed on the developments said Saudi oil exports would continue to run as normal this week thanks to large storage in the kingdom.

But it remains unclear how long the oil production shut down will continue, because the damage to the infrastructure was big and could not be fixed overnight, the source added.

Traders and analysts said crude may spike to as high as $100 if Riyadh fails to quickly bring back supply.

The kingdom, the worlds top oil exporter, ships more than 7 million barrels of oil to global destinations every day.

Riyadh said it would compensate for the loss by drawing on its stocks which stood at 188 million barrels in June, according to official data. The United States said it was also ready to tap emergency oil reserves if needed.

The Saudi bourse closed down 1.1% with banking and petrochemical shares taking the biggest hit. Saudi petrochemical firms announced a significant reduction in feedstock supplies.

Abqaiq is the nerve center of the Saudi energy system. Even if exports resume in the next 24-48 hours, the image of invulnerability has been altered, Helima Croft, global head of commodity strategyat RBC Capital Markets, told Reuters.

According to U.S. government information, 15 structures at Abqaiq suffered damage on their west-northwest facing sides.

Pompeo said there was no evidence the attack came from Yemen, where a Saudi-led coalition has been battling the Houthis for over four years in a conflict widely seen as a proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Shiite Muslim rival Iran.

Amid all the calls for de-escalation, Iran has now launched an unprecedented attack on the worlds energy supply, he said.

Some Iraqi media outlets said the attack came from there. Baghdad denied this on Sunday and vowed to punish anyone using Iraq, where Iran-backed paramilitary groups wield increasing power, as a launchpad for attacks.

Kuwait, which borders Iraq, said it was investigating the sighting of a drone over its territory and coordinating with Saudi Arabia and other countries. The cabinet said the prime minister ordered tighter security at vital installations.

Riyadh accused Iran of being behind previous attacks on oil pumping stations and the Shaybah oilfield, charges Tehran denies. It has not yet blamed any party for Saturdays strike, but linked it to a recent series of attacks on Saudi oil assets and crude tankers in Gulf waters.

Riyadh says Iran arms the Houthis, a charge both deny.

Regional tensions have escalated since Washington quit an international nuclear deal and extended sanctions on Iran.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned Saturdays attacks and called on all parties to exercises restraint and prevent any escalation.

The European Union warned that the strikes posed a real threat to regional security, Britain called them a reckless attempt to disrupt global oil supplies and France said such actions could only worsen risk of conflict. Irans ally Turkey called for the avoidance of provocative steps.

U.S.-IRAN TALKS

The attack comes after U.S. President Donald Trump said a meeting with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani was possible at the United Nations General Assembly in New York this month. Tehran ruled out talks until sanctions are lifted.

White House adviser Kellyanne Conway did not rule out a possible meeting between the two but told Fox News Sunday that the strikes did not help that prospect.

Saudi de facto ruler Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman told Trump that Riyadh was ready to deal with terrorist aggression.

The Saudi-led coalition has responded to past Houthi attacks with air strikes on the groups military sites in Yemen.

The conflict has been in military stalemate for years. The alliance has air supremacy but has come under scrutiny over civilian deaths and a humanitarian crisis that has left millions facing starvation. The Houthis, more adept at guerrilla warfare, have increased attacks on Saudi cities, thwarting peace efforts.

The United Arab Emirates, Riyadhs main partner in the alliance, has reduced its presence in Yemen due to concern over rising Iran tensions and Western criticism of the war, leaving Riyadh to try to neutralize the Houthi threat along its border.

Irans foreign minister Mohammed Javad Zarif said Washington and its allies were stuck in Yemen and that blaming Tehran wont end the disaster.

Additional reporting by Saeed Azhar and Hadeel Al Sayegh in Dubai, Timothy Gardner in Washington, William James in London, John Irish in Paris, Alex Lawler, Julia Payne and Ron Bousso in London, Robin Emmott in Brussels, and Michelle Nichols in New York; Writing by Ghaida Ghantous; Editing by Elaine Hardcastle, William Maclean

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Iran dismisses U.S. claim it was behind Saudi oil strikes ...

Iran, a mountainous, arid, and ethnically diverse country of southwestern Asia. Much of Iran consists of a central desert plateau, which is ringed on all sides by lofty mountain ranges that afford access to the interior through high passes. Most of the population lives on the edges of this forbidding, waterless waste. The capital is Tehrn, a sprawling, jumbled metropolis at the southern foot of the Elburz Mountains. Famed for its handsome architecture and verdant gardens, the city fell somewhat into disrepair in the decades following the Iranian Revolution of 197879, though efforts were later mounted to preserve historic buildings and expand the citys network of parks. As with Tehrn, cities such as Efahn and Shrz combine modern buildings with important landmarks from the past and serve as major centres of education, culture, and commerce.

The heart of the storied Persian empire of antiquity, Iran has long played an important role in the region as an imperial power and laterbecause of its strategic position and abundant natural resources, especially petroleumas a factor in colonial and superpower rivalries. The countrys roots as a distinctive culture and society date to the Achaemenian period, which began in 550 bce. From that time the region that is now Irantraditionally known as Persiahas been influenced by waves of indigenous and foreign conquerors and immigrants, including the Hellenistic Seleucids and native Parthians and Ssnids. Persias conquest by the Muslim Arabs in the 7th century ce was to leave the most lasting influence, however, as Iranian culture was all but completely subsumed under that of its conquerors.

An Iranian cultural renaissance in the late 8th century led to a reawakening of Persian literary culture, though the Persian language was now highly Arabized and in Arabic script, and native Persian Islamic dynasties began to appear with the rise of the hirids in the early 9th century. The region fell under the sway of successive waves of Persian, Turkish, and Mongol conquerors until the rise of the afavids, who introduced Twelver Shiism as the official creed, in the early 16th century. Over the following centuries, with the state-fostered rise of a Persian-based Shii clergy, a synthesis was formed between Persian culture and Shii Islam that marked each indelibly with the tincture of the other.

With the fall of the afavids in 1736, rule passed into the hands of several short-lived dynasties leading to the rise of the Qjr line in 1796. Qjr rule was marked by the growing influence of the European powers in Irans internal affairs, with its attendant economic and political difficulties, and by the growing power of the Shii clergy in social and political issues.

The countrys difficulties led to the ascent in 1925 of the Pahlavi line, whose ill-planned efforts to modernize Iran led to widespread dissatisfaction and the dynastys subsequent overthrow in the revolution of 1979. This revolution brought a regime to power that uniquely combined elements of a parliamentary democracy with an Islamic theocracy run by the countrys clergy. The worlds sole Shii state, Iran found itself almost immediately embroiled in a long-term war with neighbouring Iraq that left it economically and socially drained, and the Islamic republics alleged support for international terrorism left the country ostracized from the global community. Reformist elements rose within the government during the last decade of the 20th century, opposed both to the ongoing rule of the clergy and to Irans continued political and economic isolation from the international community.

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Iran | History, Culture, People, Facts, & Map | Britannica.com