Iran to report Saudi raid on Sana’a mission to UN: Official

A senior Iranian official says the Islamic Republic is set to submit a report to the United Nations over the Saudi air raid on Tehran’s mission in the Yemeni capital, Sana’a.

Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for Arab and African Affairs Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said the overnight Saudi raid on the Iranian embassy has seriously wounded one of the security guards at the site.

“In the coming hours, we are set to inform the United Nations on the details of this issue in an official report,” said the Iranian diplomat, stressing that the Islamic Republic would pursue the Saudi crime through legal channels at the international level.

He added that Saudi Arabia is responsible for any measures that undermine the security of Iranian diplomatic missions in Yemen, which has been under relentless Riyadh’s attacks since late March 2015.

Late on Wednesday, Saudi jets targeted Iran’s embassy in Sana’a, damaging the mission’s building and wounding a number of security forces guarding the place. The Saudi military has said it will launch an investigation into the issue.

The official further referred to the violence that erupted on January 2 near two Saudi missions in Iran during angry protests against Riyadh’s execution of top opposition cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, saying it is regrettable that the kingdom has made a “political brawl” out of an “unforeseen” act carried out by a handful of people.

Earlier in the day, the Iranian Foreign Ministry sharply condemned the “deliberate” Saudi attack on Tehran’s embassy in the Yemeni capital, describing the move as a “violation of all conventions and international regulations” on protecting diplomatic missions under all circumstances.

Jaberi Ansari said Tehran reserves the right to follow up on the Saudi aerial attack.

The Iranian mission in Sana’a has time and again come under Saudi attacks since the beginning of Riyadh’s military campaign against Yemen on March 26, 2015.

Last June, Iran sent a letter to the UN Security Council to inform the 15-nation body that Riyadh’s air forces had pounded areas near Tehran’s embassy in the Yemeni capital twice during a period of two months.

The Iranian diplomatic mission’s compound suffered severe damage during the bombings on May 25, 2015, which was followed a similar attack on April 20 the same year.

Tehran-Riyadh ties have hit a new low since Saudi Arabia decided to break off diplomatic relations with Iran, which strongly criticized the kingdom’s execution of Sheikh Nimr.

Sheikh Nimr’s killing came in defiance of international calls on Riyadh to overturn the death sentence handed down in 2014 to the prominent religious figure, sparking angry anti-Saudi protest rallies in several countries around the world, including Iran.

When the news of Sheikh Nimr’s death broke out, angry Iranian protesters held demonstrations in front of the Saudi embassy in Tehran and its consulate in the northeastern city of Mashhad on January 2.

During the demonstrations, some people mounted the walls of the consulate in Mashhad, while incendiary devices were hurled at the embassy in Tehran.

Following the incidents, Saudi Arabia severed diplomatic relations with Tehran after the incident. A number of Riyadh’s allies, including Bahrain, Sudan, Djibouti and Somalia, also took the kingdom’s lead and severed relations with the Islamic Republic.

This is while Tehran detained some 50 people over the transgression, with senior Iranian officials, including President Hassan Rouhani, criticizing the violence and vowing a firm response to any violations of law.

Rouhani has tasked Iran’s Judiciary with prosecuting those involved in this “evidenced offense” in a bid to bring a halt to more such attempts.

However, the Iranian president has criticized Riyadh’s move to sever diplomatic relations with Tehran as an attempt to cover up the failure of its regional policies and undermine peace in the region.

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