Iran: Saudis attack its embassy in Yemen
Riyadh vows to look at airstrike claim as Teheran announces a ban on all products made in the kingdom
Iran on Thursday said Saudi warplanes had attacked its embassy in Yemen’s capital, a development that would exacerbate tensions between the major Shiite and Sunni powers in the region, and Riyadh said it would investigate the accusation.
“Saudi Arabia is responsible for the damage to the embassy building and the injury to some of its staff,” Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Hossein Jaber Ansari was quoted as saying by Iranian state television news channel IRIB.
Residents and witnesses in Sanaa said there was no damage to the embassy building.
They said an airstrike had hit a public square about 700 meters away from the embassy and that some stones and shrapnel had landed in the embassy’s yard.
A growing diplomatic dispute between Riyadh and Teheran triggered by Saudi’s execution of a prominent Shiite cleric has damaged the outlook for any resolution to the conflict in Yemen, where a coalition led by Saudi Arabia has been fighting the Shiite, Iranallied Houthi movement.
Iran’s government said on Thursday that it will ban all imports of products made in Saudi Arabia, Iranian student news agency ISNA reported.
The decision was made in a meeting chaired by President Hassan Rouhani, it said.
Annual imports from Saudi Arabia total about $60 million a year and consisted mostly of packing materials and textiles.
Saudi coalition spokesman Brigadier General Ahmed Asseri said coalition jets carried out heavy strikes in Sanaa on Wednesday night to target missile launchers used by the Houthi militia to fire at Saudi Arabia.
He said the coalition would investigate Iran’s accusation and added that the H out his has used civilian facilities including abandoned embassies.
Asseri said the coalition had requested all countries to supply it with coordinates of the location of their diplomatic missions and that accusations made on the basis of information provided by the Houthis “have no credibility”.
While Riyadh sees the Houthis as a proxy for bitter regional rival Iran to expand its influence, the Houthis deny this and said they are fighting a revolution against a corrupt government and Gulf Arab powers beholden to the West.
Chinese Vice-Foreign Minister Zhang Ming will have in-depth discussions with Saudi Arabia and Iran on regional situation in his trip to the two countries, a Foreign Ministry spokesperson said on Thursday.