Saudi Arabia ‘intercepts’ Yemen missile targeting King Slaman’s residence

Saudi Arabia said it intercepted a missile Tuesday over Riyadh fired by Yemen’s Houthi Ansarullah movement who said the target was the official residence of King Salman.

An AFP correspondent heard a loud explosion at 1050 GMT, shortly before the scheduled unveiling of the Saudi budget, which is usually announced by the king from the Yamamah palace, his official residence.

“Coalition forces confirm intercepting” a missile, the Center for International Communication, an arm of the Saudi information ministry, said on Twitter.

“There are no reported casualties at this time,” it added.

In Yemen, Mohammed Abdul-salam, the spokesman for the Houthis, said they fired a ballistic missile targeting the Yamamah palace. He tweeted that a ballistic “Volcano H-2” missile was used in the attack.

It was the second missile launched at Riyadh in the past two months in retaliation for the Saudi Arabia deadly airstrikes.

The attacks, which could further escalate a military campaign by a Saudi-led coalition against Yemen, underscore how the raging Yemen conflict is increasingly spilling across the border.

The first attack, which targeted Riyadh international airport on November 4, triggered the tightening of a long-standing Saudi-led blockade of Yemen – already on the verge of famine.

Saudi Arabia accused Iran of supplying the missile to the Houthis, a charge Tehran strongly denied.

On Thursday, US ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley presented what she called “undeniable” evidence that last month’s missile was “made in Iran”.

But her comments went beyond the findings of a UN investigation which reached no firm conclusion on whether the missile came from an Iranian supplier, saying only that it had a “common origin” to some Iranian designs.

The Ansarullah movement last month warned that they considered “airports, ports, border crossings and areas of any importance” in Saudi Arabia, as well as its ally the United Arab Emirates, as legitimate targets.

Civilian deaths in Yemen

Meanwhile, the UN human rights office said Tuesday it has verified the killings of 115 Yemeni civilians and other non-combatants in airstrikes carried out over 11 days this month by the Saudiled military coalition.

The office spokesman, Rupert Colville, said UN officials are “deeply concerned” about the surge in civilian casualties from airstrikes.

The attacks included airstrikes on Yemen’s Houthi-run TV channel, a hospital in the Red Sea port city of Hodeida and a series of strikes targeting a prison in Sanaa that killed 43, he said.

Over the past three years, more than 13,000 people have been killed and three million displaced amid the Saudi-led coalition’s air campaign. Reactions poured in on Monday after the United States vetoed a UN Security Council’s resolution calling for the annulment of President Donald Trump’s controversial bid to recognize Beit-ul-moqaddas as Israel’s capital.

Fourteen members of the 15-member council voted on Monday in favor of the Egyptian-drafted resolution, which did not specifically name the US or Trump but expressed “deep regret at recent decisions concerning the status of Jerusalem (Beit-ulmoqaddas)”, while US Ambassador Nikki Haley wielded Washington’s veto against the call.

In a statement released shortly after the UNSC vote, the Palestinian government strongly denounced as “unacceptable” the American veto, saying the highly provocative move “threatens the stability of the international community because it disrespects it.”

Speaking to reporters, Nabil Abu Rudeina, a spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, said the US veto of the UN resolution was “unacceptable and threatens the stability of the international community, because it disrespects it.”

Abu Rudeina said the support for the resolution, which included US allies France, Italy and Japan, “showed the (American) isolation,” adding, “The international community must work now to protect the Palestinian people.”

Palestinian Foreign Minister Riad Maliki called for an emergency United Nations General Assembly meeting after the move, noting that the US will not be able to veto the resolution at the General Assembly.

“We do enjoy great support from the majority of member states in the Security Council and in the United Nations in general against the US decision to move the embassy to Jerusalem (Beit-ul-moqaddas) and to recognize Jerusalem (Beit-ul-moqaddas) as the capital of the State of Israel,” he added.

“We were aware that the US veto was imminent we have really worked very hard to get 14 yes (votes). We didn’t even bother to look at the American position, we wanted to make sure that we are getting 14 votes in favor of the resolution and this is what we got. So it was very clear that 14 votes in favor, which means the majority of members of the Security Council against veto from the US,” he added.

“The nuclear deal will not collapse... Those who hope that Trump will cause its collapse, are wrong,” Rouhani said.

The Iranian president also urged the opponents of the Iran nuclear deal not to pin hopes on Trump, saying “he would do nothing for you.”

“The JCPOA remains in place, and we will continue on this path,” Rouhani pointed out.

The JCPOA was reached between Iran and the P5+1 countries — namely the US, Russia, China, France, Britain, and Germany — in July 2015 and took effect in January 2016.

Under the agreement, Iran undertook to apply certain limits to its nuclear program in exchange for the termination of all nuclear-related sanctions against Tehran.

The International Atomic Energy Agency has repeatedly con¿rmed Iran’s full commitment to its side of the bargain.

However, Trump refused in October to certify that Iran was complying with the JCPOA under a domestic US law and warned that he might ultimately “terminate” the deal.

He also directed his administration “to work closely with Congress and our allies to address the deal’s many serious Àaws.”

Last week, the US Congress missed a deadline to reimpose sanctions on Iran that were lifted under the JCPOA.

Now, Trump has until mid-january to decide whether to waive the anti-iran sanctions or risk terminating the nuclear pact by imposing new measures.

Other signatories have, however, ¿rmly defended the accord, saying it is working well and requires no amendment. They also called on Washington to stay committed to the international document.