By Katie Paul
DUBAI - Relations between Iran and Saudi Arabia deteriorated even further on Thursday as Tehran severed all commercial ties with Riyadh and accused Saudi jets of attacking its embassy in Yemen's capital.
A row has been raging for days between Shi'ite Muslim power Iran and the conservative Sunni kingdom since Saudi Arabia executed cleric Nimr al-Nimr, an opponent of the ruling dynasty who demanded greater rights for the Shi'ite minority.
Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Sudan, Djibouti and Somalia have all broken off diplomatic ties with Iran this week, the United Arab Emirates downgraded its relations and Kuwait, Qatar and Comoros recalled their envoys after the Saudi embassy in Tehran was stormed by protesters following the execution of Nimr and 46 other men.
In a cabinet meeting chaired by Iran's President Hassan Rouhani on Thursday, Tehran banned all imports from Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia had announced on Monday that Riyadh was halting trade links and air traffic with the Islamic Republic.
Iran also said on Thursday that Saudi warplanes had attacked its embassy in Yemen's capital, Sanaa, an accusation that Riyadh said it would investigate.
"Saudi Arabia is responsible for the damage to the embassy building and the injury to some of its staff," Foreign Ministry Spokesman Hossein Jaber Ansari was quoted as saying by the state news agency, IRNA.
Residents and witnesses in Sanaa said there was no damage to the embassy building in Hadda district.
They said an air strike had hit a public square about 700 meters (yards) away from the embassy and that some stones and shrapnel had landed in the embassy's yard.
- reuters
