Saudi coalition spokesman Brigadier General Ahmed Asseri said their jets carried out heavy strikes in Sanaa on Wednesday night, targeting missile launchers used by the Houthi militia against Saudi Arabia.
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Iran has accused the Saudi-led coalition battling Shi’ite rebels in Yemen of attacking its embassy in the capital, Sanaa, but there were no signs of damage on the building.
“It goes against worldwide law”, the semi-official IRIN news agency quoted Iran’s Foreign Ministry Spokesman Hossein Jaber Ansari as saying on Thursday. Sanaa and other parts of Yemen are under the control of Shiite rebels known as Houthis, who are backed by Iran.
The weekend protests were in response to Riyadh’s execution of leading Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr, a driving force behind Shiite protests in 2011.
Tensions between Iran and Saudi Arabia, the Middle East’s leading Shia and Sunni Muslim powers, and historic rivals, have seriously escalated since Saudi Arabia executed the dissident Shia cleric Nimr al Nimr last Saturday.
The comments came as 54 Iranian diplomats and their families returned to Iran after the Shiite regime cut diplomatic ties with the Saudis following the execution of prominent Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr.
Residents and witnesses in Sana’a, the Yemeni capital, told Reuters that the embassy wasn’t hit, although there was “some shrapnel strewn nearby”.
Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud, the Defense Minister and the son of King of Saudi Arabia, was recently questioned on the possibility of a war between the two countries.
Iranian protesters responded by attacking the Saudi Embassy in Tehran and its consulate in Mashhad.
Iran has also announced a ban on the import of Saudi products.
Bahrain and Sudan followed Saudi Arabia in cutting diplomatic ties, while the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait withdrew their ambassadors.
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The statement also condemned remarks that directly accused President Erdoğan, and said the publications aimed to create a negative image of him in the eyes of Iranian people.
