Iranian says Saudis invited missile strike
President Rouhani defends Yemen rebels’ attack as reaction to ‘constant’ bombing
TEHRAN, Iran — President Hassan Rouhani of Iran stood his ground Wednesday in an escalating regional showdown, defending a Yemeni rebel missile attack on the Saudi capital that Saudi Arabia has denounced as an Iranian “act of war.”
Saudi forces were “constantly bombing” Yemen, Rouhani said, adding, “What reaction can the nation of
Yemen show toward this amount of bombardment? They say that they should not use weapons?
Well, you stop the bombs, and then see if you don’t get a positive reaction from the nation of Yemen.”
The conflict in Yemen, described by the United Nations as the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, is one of several proxy battles between the two powers, with Iran supporting Houthi rebels who have controlled much of Yemen since 2014 and Saudi Arabia fighting to restore the government of President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi.
Over recent days, however, aggressive moves in Yemen and from Saudi Arabia’s crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, have pushed the cold war for regional dominance into a new stage.
Saudi Arabia said Saturday that it had intercepted a missile fired from Yemen over the international airport of the Saudi capital, Riyadh.
“We see this as an act of war,” Saudi foreign minister, Adel alJubeir, said in a CNN interview Monday. “Iran cannot lob missiles at Saudi cities and towns and expect us not to take steps.”
Iranian commanders have denied any role in providing Houthi rebels with missiles.
The attack coincided with a development in another country in which the Saudis and the Iranians contend for influence: Lebanon. The Lebanese prime minister, Saad Hariri, announced his resignation Saturday in a televised address from Riyadh, accusing Iran of “sowing fear and destruction” in the region and saying he feared for his life.
Rouhani, in remarks to a Cabinet meeting and posted on his official website, also attacked Saudi Arabia regarding Lebanon, saying it had forced out Hariri.
“In history we don’t know of an example that a country, in order to interfere with the affair of another country, would force the official of that country to resign,” Rouhani said.
A day after Hariri’s resignation came a wave of high-level arrests in Saudi Arabia that appeared to complete a consolidation of power by the 32-year-old Prince Mohammed.
No Iranian official has responded publicly to the arrests, but Rouhani appeared to refer to them briefly on Wednesday.
“If you are struggling with domestic problems inside Arabia, you should try to resolve them,” he said. “Why do you get others into trouble because of your own domestic problems and talk against all the nations of the region?”
Rouhani on Wednesday also called for dialogue. “I hope that new Saudi officials will stop their enmity with the regional nations and will choose the path of friendship.” He added, “They should know that Iran wants nothing but creating stability and security in the region.”
In Yemen’s capital, meanwhile, hundreds of cars lined the main roads of Sanaa after the Houthi rebels who control the city ordered fuel stations to close Wednesday, accusing merchants of taking advantage of a Saudi blockade to increase prices.
A Saudi-led military coalition tightened its blockade in Yemen after the attempted missile attack. Aid groups warned that the measures will exacerbate the humanitarian crisis.
Fuel prices have jumped by 50 percent since Monday. Hassan al-Zaydi, a spokesman for the Houthi-run Oil Ministry, said merchants had refused orders to keep prices fixed, prompting authorities to shut the fuel stations down.
A U.N. official said aid agencies were given no prior notice of the Saudi decision to shut down all land, air and seaports in the country and had learned about it from media.
“It will aggregate the already dire humanitarian situation,” said George Khoury, the head of the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Yemen.
“We want to be crystal clear to the international community. Any disruption will have catastrophic consequence on the lives of hundreds of thousands people and children,” he said.
Later in the day, the U.N. humanitarian chief, Mark Lowcock, warned that if blockade continued, Yemen would face “the largest famine the world has seen for many decades, with millions of victims.”