Iran Protests Saudi Move to Intercept Aid Planes in Yemen
TEHRAN (Tasnim) - Iran’s Foreign Ministry on Friday summoned Saudi Arabia’s charge d’affaires to express Tehran’s protest over Saudi Arabian warplanes’ interception of Iranian planes in the Yemeni airspace, including one carrying a consignment of humanitarian aid for war-hit Yemenis.
Iranian officials reminded the Saudi charge d’affaires that the Yemen-bound Iranian flights had already obtained the necessary permissions for flying in Oman-Yemen air route and had fully coordinated the plan with the International Red Cross and Red Crescent societies.
Unfortunately, Saudi fighter jets have twice blocked Iranian planes from landing in Yemen and forced them to return home, one of them carrying the Yemeni patients that had undergone treatment in Iran and the other one carrying humanitarian and medical aids, Iranian officials told the Saudi envoy.
Tehran also reminded Riyadh that such an incident, after declaration of an end to the military campaign against Yemen, constitutes “brazen interference in Yemen’s affairs” and violation of that country’s airspace.
Saudi Arabia on March 26 launched a military campaign against Yemen with some its Arab allies. The coalition’s justification for the air strikes against the Houthi Ansarullah movement was to restore power to fugitive Yemeni President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, a close ally of Riyadh.
Later on April 21, Saudis declared a halt to the month-long air campaign. But hours later, air strikes and ground fighting resumed and the International Red Cross described the humanitarian situation as "catastrophic."