Iran has denied having anything to do with attacks by Yemen's Houthis, a day after Saudi Arabia said Iran had encouraged the militia's recent escalation against the country.
"The Islamic Republic of Iran rejects any claim that Iran has played a role in Yemeni (Houthi) operations," Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said in a statement on Friday.
Baqaei said the Houthi militias act according to their own interests and assessments, while arguing that claims about Iranian involvement were not credible. He added that Tehran did not view an escalation of tensions as being in the interest of any party.
Since Yemen's civil war flared back to life in July, Iran-allied militant group has repeatedly struck Saudi targets including Red Sea tankers, oil facilities and Riyadh's international airport, where 13 people were killed in a single attack last week. Riyadh says 19 people have been killed and over 360 wounded in attacks on its airports.
A Saudi-led military coalition has supported Yemen's internationally recognised government for more than a decade, and reported on Friday having intercepted more missiles and drones as the kingdom comes under sustained attack from the Houthi militia.
A day earlier, a Saudi foreign ministry official said Iran had "encouraged" the escalation, which Tehran denied.
The Saudi official, deputy minister for public diplomacy Rayed Krimly, had said the Houthis rejected an offer to meet in Oman at the outset of the latest round of hostilities.
Baqaei however reiterated an offer to mediate between the two sides, saying Tehran "has always been ready to use its good offices to help end the hostilities".
Ballistic missile intercepted
On Friday, a spokesman for the Saudi-led military coalition said it had "intercepted and destroyed three drones in the southern area and Riyadh... and two cruise missiles over the Red Sea".
He added that "in the past hours, we intercepted and destroyed a ballistic missile over Yanbu", a city home to the terminus of a major oil pipeline on the Red Sea coast.
The Houthi militia attacks have proliferated since the group launched a lightning offensive in Yemen in September, seizing strategic government-held territory along the Red Sea coast overlooking a major chokepoint for global shipping.
The pressure on Saudi Arabia, the world's largest oil exporter, comes as global energy markets were already rattled by Iran's closure of the Strait of Hormuz at the outset of the wider US-Israeli war on Iran in February.
Krimly, of the Saudi foreign ministry, accused Iran on Thursday of continuing "to arm, train and support the Houthi militia in violation of UN security council resolutions".
Yemeni government forces have launched a counteroffensive with Saudi air support to retake areas seized by the Houthi militia, but have so far failed to reverse their gains.
On Friday, the local security office in Aden, the government's interim capital, said two missiles landed within the perimetre of the city's airport, "in the second incident of its kind in less than a week", adding that no one was killed.
The day before, the militant group launched a deadly missile attack on the presidential palace in Aden, killing five people and wounding 16 others, according to the health minister.
Yemeni Prime Minister Shaya al-Zindani denounced the "cowardly" act on X, calling it a "continuation of (the Houthis') criminal pattern".
A government minister said on condition of anonymity that the Houthis hit command centres for Yemeni and Saudi coalition forces housed at the palace complex.
Media affiliated with the Houthis said the attack had targeted "the headquarters of military operations, led by Saudi officers, at the Al-Maashiq Palace in Aden".
