Huthi missile on Riyadh 'bears hallmarks' of Iran

US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said a missile fired by Yemen's Houthi group toward Saudi Arabia on Tuesday "bears all the hallmarks of previous attacks using Iranian-provided weapons" as she pushed the UN Security Council to act.

Saudi air defenses shot down the ballistic missile and there were no reports of casualties or damage. In contrast, a UN human rights spokesman said coalition air strikes had killed at least 136 noncombatants in war-torn Yemen since Dec 6.

Saudi-led forces, backing Yemen's government, have fought the Iran-allied Houthis in Yemen's more than two-year-long war. Iran has denied supplying the Houthis with weapons, saying the US and Saudi allegations are "baseless and unfounded."

"We must all act cooperatively to expose the crimes of the Tehran regime and do whatever is needed to make sure they get the message. If we do not, then Iran will bring the world deeper into a broadening regional conflict," Haley told the council.

Haley said she was exploring, with some council colleagues, several options for pressuring Iran to "adjust their behavior." However, Haley is likely to struggle to convince some members, like veto powers Russia and China, that UN action is needed.

Meanwhile, Tehran strongly denied that it had supplied weapons to Yemeni rebels which they used in attacks on its archfoe Saudi Arabia as alleged by both Riyadh and Washington.

"We have no arms link with Yemen," foreign ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi told the ISNA news agency yesterday.

The Saudi-led coalition targeted rebel positions near Yemen's capital with air strikes yesterday, witnesses said, a day after Riyadh said it intercepted a missile fired by the Huthi insurgents.