Iran, Russia Hold Talks on Yemen
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for African and Middle Eastern Affairs Hossein Amir Abdollahian and his Russian counterpart held talks on a host of issues, particularly ways to help end the Saudi-led attacks on Yemen.
In a meeting in the Russian capital of Moscow on Monday, Amir Abdollahian and Mikhail Bogdanov, Russia's deputy foreign minister, exchanged views on efforts to help resolve the Yemeni crisis through political means.
Speaking before the meeting, the Iranian diplomat censured the United Nations for inaction on the Yemeni crisis and said the UN should adopt more serious stances on Yemen than it did on Syria.
He also warned against a more complicated situation in Yemen and said some problems postponed the UN-brokered peace talks on Yemen.
The UN had announced on May 20 that the peace talks will begin in Geneva on May 28.
In a telephone conversation earlier on Friday, Amir Abdollahian and Bogdanov, who is also Russian president's special representative for Africa and the Middle East, had decried the continued massacre of defenseless people in Yemen.
On March 26, Saudi Arabia and some of its Arab allies began to launch deadly air strikes against the Houthi Ansarullah movement in an attempt to restore power to the fugitive former President Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi, a close ally of Riyadh.
According to Yemen's Freedom House Foundation, the Saudi airstrikes have claimed the lives of nearly 4,000 Yemeni people so far while more than 7,000 others have been wounded, most of them civilians.
