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Iran Accuses Saudi Arabia of Hitting Embassy in Yemen Iran Accuses Saudi Arabia of Hitting Embassy in Yemen
(35 minutes later)
TEHRAN — Iran accused Saudi Arabia on Thursday of an aerial attack on its embassy in Sana, the capital of Yemen, in a potential escalation of a sectarian and geopolitical conflict that has put the region on edge.TEHRAN — Iran accused Saudi Arabia on Thursday of an aerial attack on its embassy in Sana, the capital of Yemen, in a potential escalation of a sectarian and geopolitical conflict that has put the region on edge.
The attack on the embassy is believed to have occurred as the Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen carried out its heaviest airstrikes in months over Sana. The attack on the embassy is believed to have occurred as the Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen carried out its heaviest airstrikes in months over Sana. Saudi officials said the airstrikes targeted missile launchers that Houthi rebels fighting the Yemeni government have used to fire across the border into Saudi Arabia.
Saudi officials said the airstrikes targeted missile launchers that Houthi rebels fighting the Yemeni government have used to fire across the border into Saudi Arabia. Yemen, like Syria, is a crucial battleground in the proxy war between Saudi Arabia, a Sunni monarchy, and Shiite Iran. Thousands of people have been killed in hostilities that erupted in March after the Houthis drove President Abdu Rabbu Mansour Hadi from power. Saudi Arabia, which supports Mr. Hadi, who is now in exile, is leading an Arab military coalition that is carrying out airstrikes and ground combat against the Houthis.
Yemen, like Syria, is a crucial battleground in the proxy war between Saudi Arabia, a Sunni monarchy, and Shiite Iran. In Yemen, the Shiite Houthi rebels are fighting a Saudi-backed Sunni government. The Iranian foreign minister, Hossein Jaber Ansari, “strongly condemned the Saudi aircraft missile attack on Iran’s Embassy in Sana, which caused damage to the embassy building and wounded a number of the building’s guards,” the ILNA news agency reported.
Hossein Jaber Ansari, the Iranian foreign minister, “strongly condemned the Saudi aircraft missile attack on Iran’s Embassy in Sana, which caused damage to the embassy building and wounded a number of the building’s guards,” the ILNA news agency reported. Mr. Ansari added: “This deliberate attempt by the Saudi government is in violation of all the conventions and regulation of international law on the protection and the security of diplomatic premises in all situations, and the responsibility for the action, as well as compensation for damage done to the building and injuries to the embassy staff lies with the government of Saudi Arabia.”
Mr. Ansari also said, “This deliberate attempt by the Saudi government is in violation of all the conventions and regulation of international law on the protection and the security of diplomatic premises in all situations, and the responsibility for the action, as well as compensation for damage done to the building and injuries to the embassy staff lies with the government of Saudi Arabia.”
The Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen will investigate the accusation, a spokesman for the coalition, Brig. Gen. Ahmed Asseri, said, according to Reuters.The Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen will investigate the accusation, a spokesman for the coalition, Brig. Gen. Ahmed Asseri, said, according to Reuters.
The most recent accusations are a new dimension in a dispute that has roiled the region since Saturday, when Saudi Arabia executed 47 men, including a dissident Shiite cleric, Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr.The most recent accusations are a new dimension in a dispute that has roiled the region since Saturday, when Saudi Arabia executed 47 men, including a dissident Shiite cleric, Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr.
Enraged Iranians stormed the Saudi Embassy in Tehran and the Saudi Consulate in Mashhad, Iran’s second-largest city. Saudi Arabia responded by cutting ties with Iran, as didBahrain and Sudan. The dispute has threatened to destabilize the fragile negotiations to bring an end to Syria’s five-year-old civil war. Enraged Iranians stormed the Saudi Embassy in Tehran and the Saudi Consulate in Mashhad, Iran’s second-largest city. Saudi Arabia responded by cutting ties with Iran, as did Bahrain and Sudan. Kuwait has recalled its ambassador to Iran, and the United Arab Emirates, a significant trading partner of Iran’s, downgraded diplomatic relations.
The dispute has threatened to disrupt the fragile negotiations to bring an end to Syria’s five-year-old civil war, as well as Iraq’s effort to repulse the Islamic State.
Earlier on Thursday, Brig. Gen. Hossein Salami, a commander of Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps in Iran, warned Saudi Arabia that it would “face collapse in the near future” if it stayed on its current course.
General Salami was speaking at a protest against Sheikh Nimr’s execution. He compared the Saudis to the Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein — a Sunni leader of a majority-Shiite country, who was toppled when the United States invaded Iraq in 2010. Mr. Hussein ordered the execution of a prominent Shiite cleric, Ayatollah Muhammad Bakr al-Sadr, in 1980, inflaming sectarian tensions that persist to this day.
“Saddam, in Iraq, took the same course, executed a leading cleric in Iraq, and finally took resort in domestic suppression and aggression towards other countries, but ultimately his faith ended in humiliation,” General Salami said.
“This regime, Saudi Arabia, has taken political refuge with the Americans. The policies that al-Saud is pursuing, creating a domino effect, under which they will fall themselves,” he added, referring to the House of Saud, the kingdom’s governing family.