Saudi won't allow war with Iran

Saudi Arabia's Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has said a war between his country and Iran would be the beginning of a catastrophe and Riyadh would not allow it, the Economist reported on Thursday.

"It is something that we do not foresee at all, and whoever is pushing towards that is somebody who is not in their right mind," it quoted him as saying in an interview.

The prince, who is also defence minister, added that Riyadh was concerned at what it saw as the United States' adoption of a less engaged role in the Middle East.

"The United States must realise that they are the number one in the world and they have to act like it," he was quoted as saying.

Meanwhile, the Saudi-led coalition and Yemen's foreign ministry denied Iran's accusation that Saudi warplanes had hit its embassy in the Yemeni capital of Sanaa.

Iran on Thursday said the warplanes had attacked its embassy in Yemen's capital on Wednesday night, an accusation that exacerbated tension between the major Shia and Sunni powers in the region.

"The coalition command confirmed that these (Iranian) allegations are false and void, stressing that it does not carry out any operations in the vicinity of the embassy or near it," a statement on the state Saudi news agency SPA said late on Thursday.

It also urged diplomatic missions in Sanaa not to offer militias an opportunity "to use diplomatic missions' buildings in any military action."

Residents and witnesses in Sanaa had told Reuters there was no damage to the Iranian embassy building.

Yemen's foreign ministry also denied the embassy building had been targeted, according to the Saudi-allied, government-run state news agency, sabanew.net.

The official foreign ministry source cited on sabanew.net said responsibility for the protection of diplomatic missions in Sanaa lay with the Houthi militia, who are in control of Sanaa, and their allies, forces loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh.

A growing diplomatic dispute between Riyadh and Tehran, triggered by Saudi Arabia's execution of a prominent Shia cleric, has damaged the outlook for any resolution to the conflict in Yemen, where a coalition led by Saudi Arabia has been fighting the Shia, Iran-allied Houthi movement.

Anti-Saudi protests were held in Iran yesterday against Riyadh's execution of the Shia cleric and after Tehran accused its regional rival of bombing its Yemen embassy.

Around 1,000 protestors marched through Tehran chanting "death to Al-Saud" -- Riyadh's ruling family, according to an AFP photographer. Others shouted "death to America" and "death to Israel", frequent rallying cries at demonstrations in Iran.

The Arab News daily yesterday reported that four Iranians including an alleged spy will stand trial in Saudi Arabia. It said the three were alleged "terrorists", but gave no details of the accusations and the Iranians were not identified.

The Saudi Gazette said they were arrested in 2013 and 2014. A fifth Iranian is already serving a 13-year jail term following his conviction for recruiting young Saudis to fight in neighbouring countries, the newspaper said.