Tehran Accuses Saudi Arabia of Airstrike on Iran’s Embassy in Yemen

Riyadh severed diplomatic ties and air links with Tehran after angry crowds set fire to its embassy in the Iranian capital and its consulate in Mashhad.

“During an air raid by Saudi Arabia against Sanaa, a rocket fell near our embassy and unfortunately one of our guards was seriously wounded”, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian said.

It comes amid growing diplomatic confrontations between Shiite power Iran and Saudi Arabia and its Sunni allies that threaten to widen sectarian rifts around the region.

An Arab coalition headed by Saudi Arabia has been carrying out airstrikes against Houthi positions in Yemen at the request of President-in-exhile Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi since late March.

Iran on Thursday (Friday NZ Time) said Saudi warplanes had attacked its embassy in Yemen’s capital, a development that would exacerbate tensions between the major Shi’ite and Sunni powers in the region, and Riyadh said it would investigate the accusation. Saudi forces then moved to “immediately” destroy the missile’s launch pad in Yemen.

Iran’s government on Thursday banned all imports of products made in Saudi Arabia, according to student news agency ISNA.

A number of Arab states have either cut or downgraded the diplomatic ties with Tehran.

Nimr al-Nimr, 57, a Shiite cleric from Saudi Arabia’s oil-rich Eastern Province, was a well-known figure at anti-government demonstrations and criticized Saudi rulers in some of his sermons for their treatment of the kingdom’s Shiite minority. Sanaa and other parts of Yemen are under the control of Shiite rebels known as Houthis, who are backed by Iran.

On Tuesday, Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani said Riyadh can not hide the “crime” of killing a religious cleric by severing diplomatic ties with Tehran.

“The executions in Saudi Arabia are an internal legal matter”.

Authorities in Iran have announced plans to bar Iranian citizens from making a hajj to the Saudi Arabian cities of Mecca and Medina, CNN reports.