The airstrike in Sanaa damaged the building and injured multiple embassy staff members, Iranian state media reported a foreign ministry spokesman as saying. 5, 2016, President Hassan Rouhani said that Saudi Arabia’s move to sever ties with his country couldn’t “cover its crime” of executing al-Nimr.
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Saudi coalition spokesman Brigadier General Ahmed Asseri said coalition jets carried out heavy strikes in Sanaa on Wednesday night to target missile launchers used by the Houthi militia to fire at Saudi Arabia. Late Sunday, Saudi Arabia announced it was severing relations with Iran because of the assaults.
Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Sudan, Djibouti and Somalia have all broken off diplomatic ties with Iran this week, the United Arab Emirates downgraded its relations and Kuwait, Qatar and Comoros recalled their envoys after the Saudi embassy in Tehran was stormed by protesters following the execution of Nimr and 46 other men.
Salami called Riyadh’s decision to cut ties with Iran “irrational and hateful” and said the violence in Iraq and Syria were “the direct results of Saudi’s sectarian policies in the region”. The local resident, who spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity out of fear for her safety, shared a mobile phone video showing Saudi armored personnel carriers traveling through local streets.
At the same time the row has dealt another blow to the unity of the OPEC oil cartel, which includes both Iran and Saudi Arabia, at a time when a glut of crude on world markets has sent prices plunging. However, many ultraconservatives of the Saudi Wahhabi school of Islam view Shiites as heretics.
Besides import ban, the Iranian cabinet also reaffirmed a ban on pilgrims travelling to Makkah for Umrah haj. Iran’s annual exports to Saudi Arabia are worth about $130 million a year and are mainly steel, cement and agricultural products. In other developments, Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir arrived in Pakistan’s capital, Islamabad, for meetings with Pakistani leaders.
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Russian Federation also has offered itself as a potential mediator, though it’s unclear whether Saudi or Iranian officials have responded to the proposal.
