Yemen Solicits Support from Iran
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Parliament speaker of Yemen asked the Iranian “brothers” to lend support to the Arab country, saying Tehran’s experience is helpful in meeting the regional challenges.
“We call on Iran to support Yemen,” the Yemeni parliament speaker, Yahya Ali al-Raee, said in a meeting with his Iranian counterpart Ali Larijani in Djibouti.
“Yemen’s president (Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi) has welcomed the meetings between us, and insists on the presence of ambassadors in the two countries,” Raee added.
The critical juncture necessitates using Iran’s ideas for settling the regional problems, the Arab speaker noted.
Larijani, for his part, described Yemen as a “historical and very significant” country, saying, “The Islamic Republic of Iran has always tried to calm the situation down in Yemen.”
He also praised the Yemeni politicians for their wise performance that prevented a serious split in the recent turmoil in the Arab country.
Yemen has been locked in a protracted transition since long-time president Ali Abdullah Saleh was forced from power in February 2012 after a deadly 11-month uprising.
The Arab country is currently beset with political problems between the central government and Ansarullah revolutionaries, also known as Houthis.
In September, Ansarullah revolutionary fighters gained control of Sana’a following a four-day battle with army forces loyal to General Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar, the half-brother of the former dictator. Supported by government forces, the fighters have managed to flush al-Qaeda militants out of their strongholds in central and southern Yemen.
In the same month, Ansarullah fighters and President Hadi’s government inked a UN-backed ceasefire deal that called for the withdrawal of the revolutionaries from the capital once a neutral prime minister was picked.
Backed by government forces, the fighters have managed to flush al-Qaeda militants out of their strongholds in central and southern Yemen.
