Saudi Arabia threatens Iran after Yemen’s missile strike

Saudi Arabia has ramped up threats to Iran, saying there will be a response "at the appropriate time and manner," following a missile strike from neighboring Yemen, which has been under a nonstop bombardment campaign by a Saudi-led coalition for over two and a half years.

According to Press TV, the coalition, which includes a number of Saudi Arabia’s vassal states under its command, said in a statement on Sunday that Iran was to blame for a Yemeni missile strike on Riyadh earlier in the day.

That missile was fired by the Ansarullah movement, which together with allied Yemeni army factions and tribal fighters has been fighting off the Saudi-led coalition. Riyadh and its allies accuse the Ansarullah fighters of receiving financial and arms support from Iran. The Islamic Republic rejects the accusations, but is supportive of the Yemeni defensive campaign against the Saudi invasion.

The Saudi-led coalition went further in its Sunday statement, claiming that the Ansarullah fighters were under Iran’s “direct command.”

“Therefore, the coalition’s command considers this a blatant act of military aggression by the Iranian regime, and could rise to be considered as an act of war against the kingdom of Saudi Arabia,” it said, referring to the Yemeni missile strike. “The coalition command also affirms that the kingdom reserves its right to respond to Iran in the appropriate time and manner.”

Saudi Arabia has been pursuing an open warmongering policy toward Iran. Earlier this year, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman threatened to move the “battle” to Iran.

Obviously, such bellicose rhetoric has not remained unanswered. Iranian authorities have all along made sure that Saudi royals realize that aggression of any magnitude will be reciprocated.

The Saudi-led coalition invaded Yemen in March 2015 to reinstall a former regime that had been friendly to Saudi Arabia. It also imposed a land, aerial, and naval blockade on the already-impoverished country.

Despite the Saudi-led coalition’s superior military power, the Ansarullah fighters and their allies have been successfully defending the country, turning a war Saudi Arabia had hoped to finish in a matter of weeks into a quagmire that Riyadh continues to be stuck in almost three years later.

ME