Saudi Arabia to Investigate Alleged Saudi Bombing of Iranian Embassy in Yemen

He added that Houthis use abandoned embassies for their purposes, but it was unclear whether the Iranian embassy had been fully functioning or not.

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.

Gulf officials have spoken instead of possible Iranian attempts to fuel instability in the region by attacking Saudi and Arab interests.

The protests come after Iran claimed Thursday that a Saudi-led airstrike the previous night had hit the Iranian Embassy in Sanaa, citing Iran’s Foreign Ministry.

Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, is held by Shiite rebels known as Houthis.

But a reporter for the Associated Press news agency said there was no visible damage to the embassy building, which is in a neighbourhood that has previously been targeted in air strikes.

Residents and witnesses in Sanaa said there was no damage to the embassy building in Hadda district.

Often at loggerheads over regional issues, a full-blown split between Sunni-majority Saudi Arabia and Shia-dominated Iran erupted at the weekend when Riyadh executed prominent Shia cleric and activist Nimr al-Nimr along with 46 others.

Several allies of Saudi Arabia, including Bahrain, Sudan, Djibouti and Somalia followed suit in cutting ties, as the crisis between the Middle East’s foremost Sunni and Shiite Muslim drew global concern. The United Arab Emirates partially downgraded its diplomatic relations with Teheran. Iran has also announced a ban on the import of Saudi products.

Both Mecca, the birthplace of Mohammed, and Medina, the spot of the prophet’s burial, are in modern-day Saudi Arabia.

Staff at Iran’s embassy in Riyadh and its consulate in Jeddah flew home Wednesday, Saudi state news agency SPA reported.

The Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen says it will investigate the accusation, according to coalition spokesman Brigadier General Ahmed Asseri, as cited by Reuters. “Saudi Arabia has moved against our efforts and they opposed the nuclear agreement, in line with the Zionist regime”, Zarif said, referring to Israel, and Iran’s deal previous year with world powers over its atomic programme.