Iran claims Saudi-led strike hits embassy in Yemen

Iran’s foreign ministry said Thursday that Saudi jets “deliberately” struck its embassy in an air raid that injured staff. “This deliberate action by Saudi Arabia is a violation of all global conventions that protect diplomatic missions”, foreign ministry spokesman Hossein Jaber Ansari was quoted as saying by state television.

Thousands of Iranians held anti-Saudi protests across the country on January 8 condemning Riyadh’s execution of a prominent Shi’ite cleric that has sparked renewed tensions between the two regional rivals.

The announcement Thursday follows Saudi Arabia’s decision to break off diplomatic and economic ties with Iran after its embassy in Tehran was attacked.

Saudi Arabia and its Arab allies in the Gulf, backing Yemen’s internationally recognized government, have been battling Shiite rebels in the country known as Houthis.

Iran’s foreign ministry accused Saudi Arabia of intentionally targeting Iran’s embassy with airstrikes in the Yemeni capital of Sanaa.

Iranian protesters then stormed the Saudi embassy in Tehran, prompting Riyadh to sever relations.

“We have so far responded to negative Saudi measures with patience because there is a distance between Iranian wisdom and Saudi officials’ unwise and immature approaches”, Zarif underscored.

Correction, Jan. 7, 2016: This post originally stated that the Iranian government had banned citizens from undertaking the annual Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca.

It added that attacks on the Saudi embassy in Tehran and the kingdom’s consulate in Iran’s second city Mashhad were “unacceptable and deplorable”.

The Saudi Arabia-led coalition of Arab nations has dismissed Iran’s allegations that it’ warplanes attacked an Iranian diplomatic mission in Sana’a. Because a war between Saudi Arabia and Iran is the beginning of a major catastrophe in the region.

A week-long diplomatic crisis between the Middle East’s leading Sunni and Shia Muslim powers has raised fears of heightened sectarian tensions across the region. President Hassan Rouhani called the angry reaction to Nimr’s killing “only natural” and slammed Saudi Arabia for severing ties in response.

Saudi Arabia would welcome the opportunity to see Iran “act like a normal country”, he said.