Iran Voices Support for Yemeni-Yemeni Talks in Sweden

In the statement, the Foreign Ministry called on all Yemeni parties to engage “constructively and responsibly” in the Stockholm talks and  take steps to build confidence and provide the necessary ground for reaching a comprehensive agreement that would end the suffering of the Yemeni people and the cruel blockade on the Arab country.

The ministry also pointed to Iran’s four-point peace plan for Yemen and said the Islamic Republic once again emphasizes that the Yemeni crisis has no solution other than a political one based on Yemeni-Yemeni talks.

Tehran also calls on the international community to play a more serious role in facilitating the peace process in Yemen through imposing pressures on countries exporting weapons to the Saudi-led coalition, according to the statement. 

Britain’s ambassador to Yemen said Thursday he had spoken with representatives from the country’s warring sides and that he expects them to attend peace talks that are to begin this week in Stockholm.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on Friday highlighted the effectiveness of the four-point plan he had put forward in 2015 for bringing peace to Yemen and said it “still remains the only viable option”.

Yemen’s defenseless people have been under massive attacks by the coalition for more than three-and-a-half years but Riyadh has reached none of its objectives in Yemen so far.

Since March 2015, Saudi Arabia and some of its Arab allies have been carrying out deadly airstrikes against the Houthi Ansarullah movement in an attempt to restore power to fugitive former president Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi, a close ally of Riyadh.

The Yemeni Ministry of Human Rights announced in a statement on March 25 that the war had left 600,000 civilians dead and injured until then. The war and the accompanying blockade have also caused famine across Yemen.