Iran accuses Saudis of attacking Yemen embassy

No Associated Press journalist in Yemen could immediately reach the embassy in the war-torn capital Sanaa on Thursday after the IRNA report.

Coalition jets carried out heavy strikes in Sanaa on Wednesday night to target missile launchers used by the Houthis to fire at Saudi Arabia, Asseri added.

More than 5,700 people have died, almost half of them civilians, since a pro-government coalition led by Saudi Arabia began a military campaign against Houthi rebels in March after the rebels seized the city of Sanaa and began to advance to Aden.

The accusation comes amid a unsafe rise in tensions between Iran and Saudi Arabia in recent days, following the kingdom’s execution of a Shiite cleric and attacks on Saudi diplomatic posts in the Islamic Republic.

Often at loggerheads over regional issues, a full-blown split between Sunni-majority Saudi Arabia and Shia-dominated Iran erupted at the weekend when Riyadh executed prominent Shia cleric and activist Nimr al-Nimr along with 46 others.

Qatar on Thursday recalled its ambassador from Tehran, becoming the latest Gulf state to reduce its diplomatic presence there in response to the arson attack by protesters on the Saudi embassy on Saturday.

Trade between Saudi Arabia and Iran is small compared with the size of their economies, but tens of thousands of Iranians travel to the kingdom every year to complete the haj as well as Umrah pilgrimages made outside of haj season.

The last time the Iranian government suspended its citizens from making the Hajj was in 1987 after 400 pilgrims, mostly Iranians, were killed by Saudi security forces during a demonstration against the United States.

The country is also freezing all Saudi imports.

Somalia followed suit Thursday, saying it had given Iranian diplomats 72 hours to leave. The damage is still unclear, as the road leading to the embassy has been closed since the incident.

As good friends of both Saudi Arabia and Iran, Retno said that Indonesia would continue all necessary efforts to prevent the situation from worsening. Bahrain, Sudan, and Kuwait have also scaled back diplomatic relations with Iran in solidarity.