Iran Renews Call for Political Settlement of Yemen Crisis
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Voicing Tehran’s support for “fair and practical” initiatives for lifting the blockade on Yemen, ensuring a ceasefire, and launching Yemeni-Yemeni talks without foreign interference, the Iranian Foreign Ministry reiterated the need for political solutions to resolve the crisis.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Iran on Thursday released a statement on the 7th anniversary of the Saudi-led military aggression against Yemen.
Saudi Arabia and a number of its regional allies, backed by the United States and European powers, launched the war on Yemen in March 2015, with the goal of bringing the government of former Yemeni president Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi back to power and crushing the popular Ansarullah resistance movement.
Despite Saudi Arabia’s incessant bombardment of the impoverished Arab country, which is accompanied by a tight siege, the Yemeni armed forces have gradually grown stronger, leaving Riyadh and its allies bogged down in the country.
Some 130,000 people, including more than 13,000 civilians, have been killed in Yemen, according to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project.
What follows is the text of the statement from the Iranian Foreign Ministry:
“The destructive war and the cruel blockade of the coalition against the people of Yemen is entering its eighth year as it has led to this resilient country facing the worst humanitarian catastrophe of the century and the direct and indirect consequences of this war has, more than anyone, affected innocent civilians, women and children and has led to the destruction of vital infrastructure and health, livelihood, economic and educational facilities of Yemen.
The invading coalition, over the past seven years, has not settled for bombing and missile strikes, and has used an inhuman and illegal blockade as leverage to score political and military points, while imposing the worst economic war and the most severe blockade on Yemen by blocking land, air and sea access points and barring the entry of food, fuel and other necessities of the people.
These inhuman crimes by the invading coalition, in the light of arms sales by its western and American backers and their double standards and partial approach in the United Nations Security Council, has led to persistent violation of all international and humanitarian laws concerning Yemen’s crisis.
The Islamic Republic of Iran, just as in the past, supports any sort of fair and practical effort and initiative for the removal of the blockade, establishment of truce and beginning of Yemeni-Yemeni negotiations, away from foreign interference, in the light of efforts by the United Nations’ special envoy, and considers a political solution, led by the Yemenis, as the only way out of the crisis in Yemen.”
