Iranians Hold New Anti-Saudi Protests Amid Tensions

Iran accused Saudi Arabia on Thursday of deliberately launching an airstrike on its embassy in Yemen’s capital Sanaa.

The Saudi-led coalition fighting rebels in Yemen on Thursday denied an accusation by Tehran that its warplanes had targeted the Iranian Embassy there.

A Saudi-led coalition has been bombing Yemen since March, in an attempt to repel the Shia rebel Houthi movement, which is allied with Iran.

Although an Associated Press reporter in Sanaa said he saw no damage to the Iranian embassy there on Thursday, the provocation of a nearby strike was enough to prompt further retaliation from the Iranian government.

Iran has accused Saudi Arabia of launching an air strike on its embassy in the Yemeni capital of Sana’a.

Mr Nimr’s death sparked demonstrations in many countries including Iran, where protesters stormed and set fire to the Saudi embassy in Tehran as well as the kingdom’s consulate in second city Mashhad.

Tensions between Iran and Saudi Arabia have spiralled since the execution of a prominent cleric in Saudi Arabia.

Demonstrators hold posters of executed Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr near the Saudi Arabian embassy in Tehran on Sunday.

In a letter to the U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon published by Iranian news agencies earlier on Saturday, Iran’s foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif complained about Saudi Arabia’s “provocations” towards Tehran.

The Times newspaper reported on Tuesday that British Prime Minister David Cameron had delayed a trip to Saudi Arabia. Bahrain, Sudan, and Kuwait have also scaled back diplomatic relations with Iran in solidarity.

It said the decision came during an emergency meeting of the cabinet of President Hassan Rouhani.

Tensions between Saudi Arabia, the main Sunni power, and Shiite-dominated Iran have erupted this week into a full-blown diplomatic crisis, sparking widespread worries of regional instability.

Saudi Arabia says it has shot down a missile fired into the kingdom from Yemen, which is engulfed in a civil war.