The Saudi-led coalition and Yemen’s foreign ministry denied Iran’s accusation that Saudi warplanes had hit its embassy in the Yemeni capital of Sanaa.
The Saudi-led coalition and Yemen’s foreign ministry denied Iran’s accusation that Saudi warplanes had hit its embassy in the Yemeni capital of Sanaa.
Iran on Thursday said the warplanes had attacked its embassy in Yemen’s capital on Wednesday night, an accusation that exacerbated tension between the major Shia and Sunni powers in the region.
“The coalition command confirmed that these (Iranian) allegations are false and void, stressing that it does not carry out any operations in the vicinity of the embassy or near it,” a statement on the state Saudi news agency SPA said late on Thursday.
It also urged diplomatic missions in Sanaa not to offer militias an opportunity “to use diplomatic missions’ buildings in any military action”.
Residents and witnesses in Sanaa had told Reuters there was no damage to the Iranian embassy building.
Yemen’s foreign ministry also denied the embassy building had been targeted, according to the Saudi-allied, government-run state news agency, sabanew.net.
The official foreign ministry source cited on sabanew.net said responsibility for the protection of diplomatic missions in Sanaa lay with the Houthi militia, who are in control of Sanaa, and their allies, forces loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh.
A growing diplomatic dispute between Riyadh and Tehran, triggered by Saudi Arabia’s execution of a prominent Shia cleric, has damaged the outlook for any resolution to the conflict in Yemen, where a coalition led by Saudi Arabia has been fighting the Shia, Iran-allied Houthi movement.
Around 1,000 protesters marched through Tehran on Friday chanting “death to Al-Saud” — Riyadh’s ruling family, according to an AFP photographer. Others shouted “death to America” and “death to Israel”, frequent rallying cries at demonstrations in Iran.
Some carried placards with the picture of Nimr al-Nimr, the Shia cleric and activist executed in Saudi Arabia last week.
During weekly prayers in Tehran, influential cleric Ayatollah Mohammad Emami Kashani told worshippers that Riyadh, along with Israel and the US, was responsible for “all crimes committed against Muslims”.
Meanwhile, four Iranians — including an alleged spy — will stand trial in Saudi Arabia, the local media reported Friday.
The Arab News daily reported that three of the suspects are alleged “terrorists” while another is accused of espionage. It gave no details of the accusations. The Saudi Gazette said they were arrested in 2013 and 2014, but did not identify them.
A fifth Iranian is already serving a 13-year jail term.
