SAUDI ARABIA said Wednesday it has shot down a missile fired into the Kingdom from nearby Yemen, which is engulfed in a civil war. The Saudi military said it intercepted the missile Thursday morning in Jazan province and later attacked and destroyed the platform that launched the missile in Yemen. It made the announcement in a statement carried by the state-run Saudi Press Agency. Saudi Arabia and its Arab allies in the Gulf, backing Yemen's internationally recognized government, have been battling Shiite rebels in the country known as Houthis. The Houthis have access to Yemen's supply of Soviet-era Scud missiles and have fired several across the border during the conflict. Meanwhile, an Associated Press reporter in Yemen's capital said he saw no damage at the Iranian Embassy after Tehran said it was hit in an overnight Saudi-led strike. The neighborhood in Yemen's capital, Sanaa, has been struck before as it is home to several strategic sites. On Thursday, the AP reporter said the embassy was still standing without any visible damage. Iran's state-run news agency earlier said a Saudi-led airstrike hit the embassy, citing the country's Foreign Ministry. In Riyadh, Brig. Gen. Ahmed Al-Asiri, spokesman of the coalition forces and advisor at the office of the minister of defense, said Iranian accusation will be investigated. Al-Asiri said the coalition had requested all countries to supply it with coordinates of the location of their diplomatic missions and that accusations made on the basis of information provided by the Houthis "have no credibility". The coalition command later confirmed that the Iranian allegations are untrue and null and void, stressing that it did not carry out any operations in the vicinity of the embassy. It also emphasized the the embassy headquarters are safe and not damaged. Tehran, meanwhile, announced a ban on imports from Saudi Arabia and Saudi groups called for boycotts of Iranian products. Iran's government said it had forbidden imports from Saudi Arabia after a Cabinet meeting chaired by President Hassan Rohani Thursday morning, according to state news agency IRNA. The Cabinet also reaffirmed a ban on Umrah pilgrimages to Makkah, first imposed in April in response to an alleged assault on two male Iranians by Saudi airport guards. Foreign Minister Adel Al-Jubeir told Reuters on Monday the Kingdom was halting air traffic and trade links with Iran. Chamber of commerce leaders told local daily newspaper Al-Riyadh that Saudi businesses should replace Iranian goods with alternatives from other Arab and Islamic countries. A trade boycott would cause the Kingdom little economic harm, they said, noting that imports from Iran mainly consist of pistachio nuts and pickles. Later, Saudi Press Agency reported, that the Saudi Arabian Football Federation (SAFF) had indicated that the Saudi clubs will not play Iranian clubs in the Asian Clubs Championship matches in Iran. The SAFF is waiting for the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) to shift the venues of the matches to neutral grounds.
