Iran is accusing Saudi Arabia of “intentionally” attacking its embassy in Yemen as relations between the two Middle East powers continue to deteriorate.
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On January 2, Saudi Arabia executed 47 alleged terrorists, including a prominent Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr.
Northern Yemen is a stronghold of the Iranian-allied Houthi group, which has seized large parts of Yemen including the capital from forces loyal to the embattled Saudi-backed president, Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi.
The cabinet said in a statement that was reported by the media that Umrah Hajj pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia will also remain banned for Iranian nationals. This battle will intensify as domestic pressures mount in both Saudi Arabia and Iran, and regional geopolitics become more fluid.
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.
“Saudi Arabia is responsible for the damage to the embassy building and the injury to some of its staff”, Iran’s foreign-ministry spokesman, Hossein Jaber Ansari, reportedly said on the state television network, adding that the damage was “deliberate and intentional”.
Annual imports from Saudi Arabia total about $A84.
Saudi and its Arab allies, backing Yemen’s government, have been battling Shi’ite rebels in the country known as Houthis.
Trade volume between the two countries is not considered to be significant and stands at a few hundred million dollars in a year. Saudi officials could not be immediately reached for comment. Al-Nimr’s brother, as well as another local resident of al-Awamiya in eastern Saudi Arabia, said they’ve heard gunfire on recent nights.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) – The latest developments after Saudi Arabia severed diplomatic ties with Tehran amid a dispute over Riyadh’s execution of an opposition Shiite cleric and attacks on Saudi diplomatic posts in Iran.
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”.
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The weekend execution in Saudi Arabia of Shiite cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr and 46 others sent Saudi-Iranian relations in a downward spiral.
