Iran Voices Support for UN Role in Yemeni Crisis Settlement

In a meeting with the UN Secretary General’s Special Envoy for Yemen Martin Griffiths, held in Tehran on Monday, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif expressed Iran’s readiness to support any constructive role by the UN in settling the crisis in Yemen.

Deploring the tough conditions that the war and economic blockade have imposed on Yemeni people, Zarif reiterated that the crisis in Yemen would be resolved only with a political solution, not through an imposed war.

For his part, Griffiths highlighted Iran’s efforts to establish peace and calm in Yemen, and explicated the UN’s plans to address the problems by ensuring a ceasefire, economic assistance to Yemen, and resumption of political talks in the Arab country.

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 war has killed tens of thousands of people, mostly civilians, and resulted in what the UN has described as the world's worst humanitarian crisis.

Some 3.3 million people have been displaced from their homes and 24 million, or more than 80 percent of the population, are in need of aid, according to the UN.