Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 7
By Khalid Kazimov - Trend:
An Iranian lawmaker has accused the US of provoking Saudi Arabia to target the Islamic Republic's embassy in Sanaa, Yemen.
"The recent hostile actions taken by Saudi Arabia against the Islamic Republic of Iran appear to be a result of the US and its allies' policies to create a crisis. Otherwise Saudi Arabia alone would not behave in such an impudent way," Mohammad Reza Mohseni Sani, an Iranian MP, told Trend Jan. 7.
He expressed hope that Yemeni people will respond properly to the Saudi airstrike on Iranian embassy in Sanaa.
"Saudi Arabia has taken the measure in Yemen so that the Islamic Republic of Iran would respond to the attack through Yemen," he added.
Iranian Foreign Ministry's Spokesman Hossein Jaber Ansari said Jan. 7 the country's embassy in Sanaa was hit in an airstrike by Saudi Arabia.
Several guards of the embassy were injured in the airstrike and the embassy building was also damaged in the attack, Iran's state run TV channel IRINN reported.
Ansari, meanwhile, neither provided details about the attack, nor said when the attack was carried out.
Over the past few days, the relations between Iran and Saudi Arabia deteriorated following the kingdom's execution of a prominent Shia cleric, Nimr al-Nimr, on Jan. 2.
Reacting to al-Nimr's execution, a group of hardline Iranians stormed Saudi embassy in Tehran, smashing furniture and setting fire to the building before being dispersed by police.
Officially, Iran expressed strong protest regarding the execution, and the fragile relations between the two countries started going even further downhill from there.
Earlier in March 2015, a Saudi-led coalition launched airstrikes against Shia backed Houthi rebels in Yemen.