* Signs of Tehran-Riyadh tension over fighting in Yemen

* Iran parliament suspends tax cooperation deal with Sanaa

TEHRAN, Nov 17 (Reuters) - A senior Iranian military official on Tuesday accused Saudi Arabia of killing Shi'ite Muslims in Yemen and denounced it as the onset of "Wahhabi state terrorism," the official IRNA news agency reported.

In another sign of increased regional tension over fighting in northern Yemen, Iran's parliament shelved a bill on tax cooperation with Sanaa in protest at its treatment of Yemen's minority Shi'ites, Iranian state broadcaster IRIB said.

Riyadh launched an assault on neighbouring Yemen's Houthi rebels about two weeks ago after they staged a cross-border incursion that killed two Saudi border guards.

Saudi Arabia has reportedly killed 30 Houthi fighters in air strikes on the Yemeni border, and believes the Houthi's main spokesman is among them.

At the same, the man heading the Yemen offensive against the Houthis has hit back at Iranian claims that the operation is one persecuting the country's Shia minority.

Yahya Salih, the Yemeni security chief, spoke exclusively to Al Jazeera's Hashem Ahelbarra in Sanaa.

Yemenis protest at Iran embassy over northern war

SANAA, Nov 25 (Reuters) - Around 200 protesters gathered outside the Iranian embassy in the Yemeni capital on Wednesday, shouting slogans against what Yemen says is Iranian backing for northern rebels.

The group of 200 chanted slogans such as "No to the plot of Persian expansion" and "Yemen will remain free and independent" and called for the expulsion of Iran's ambassador.

Reuters

NEW YORK - Russia has stolen a march over the United States in the multimillion-dollar arms market in cash-strapped Yemen, whose weapons purchases are being funded mostly by neighboring Saudi Arabia.

The Yemeni armed forces, currently undergoing an ambitious modernization program worth an estimated $4 billion US, are equipped with weapons largely from Russia, China, Ukraine, eastern Europe and the former Soviet republics.