Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Salman accused Iran of carrying out “direct military aggression” against Saudi Arabia, accusing Tehran of supplying Yemen’s Houthi rebels, against whom Riyadh is fighting, with missiles.
On Saturday, a missile was fired across the border from Yemen towards the Saudi capital Riyadh.
“The crown prince stressed that the involvement of the Iranian regime in supplying its Houthi militias with missiles is considered a direct military aggression,” the official Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported.
In remarks during a phone call with British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, he said the missile attack “could amount to an act of war against the kingdom,” SPA added.
On Sunday, the Saudi-led alliance fighting the Houthi rebels said it closed all Yemeni ports, prompting national carrier Yemen Airways to halt all flights from Aden and Seiyun airports, the only two functioning airports in the country, after failing to get permits to operate.
Yemen has been locked in a devastating power struggle between the Saudi-backed government and the Iran-allied Houthis since the rebels took over the Yemeni capital Sana’a in late 2014.
The conflict has intensified since March 2015, when the Houthis first advanced on Aden, prompting Saudi Arabia and its Sunni allies to start an air campaign against the Shiite group.(dpa/NAN)
