Qassemi:

Saudi heavy setbacks in Yemen behind anti-Iran claims

Rasa - The Iranian Foreign Ministry has dismissed as hackneyed and groundless the recent claims by Saudi Arabia against the Islamic Republic, saying the heavy blows Riyadh has suffered in Yemen are the reason for such allegations.

News ID: 427100

Date: 03 February 2017 - 23:50

RNA - “Fictitious claims by the Saudi foreign minister are a result of [Riyadh's] major and successive setbacks in Yemen,” Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Qassemi said on Friday.

He added that Saudi Arabia's ceaseless diversionary moves and blame games would not “change the existing realities” and emphasized that the “Yemeni army and popular forces did have not and will no need any foreign aid.”

The Iranian spokesperson said the Saudi rulers must be held accountable sooner or later for their “inhumane crimes” committed in Yemen over the past two years and added, “Leveling such allegations will not reduce their international responsibility for the war crimes committed in Yemen.”

“The Islamic Republic of Iran, as a powerful country in the region which has always played a constructive and positive role in the fight against terrorism, does not need to interfere in the affairs of regional Muslim countries,” Qassemi said.

He urged the Saudi foreign minister "to change his tested and futile ways."

In a meeting with Secretary General of the United Nations António Guterres in New York on Thursday, Adel al-Jubeir appealed for the international community to address what he claimed was Iran’s interference in the affairs of other countries in the region, particularly in Yemen.

Jubeir claimed that Iran is providing Houthi fighters with weapons and said the move is a clear violation of the UN Security Council resolutions.

Yemen’s former president, Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, who is a devoted ally of Saudi Arabia, resigned in March 2015 and fled to Riyadh.

Ever since, the Saudi military has been heavily bombing Yemen and lending backup airpower to the militias operating on the ground to reinstall the former head of state, who is now based in Aden.

The Houthi Ansarullah movement has joined forces with the army and popular forces to defend the civilian population against the indiscriminate attacks by the Saudi military and its mercenaries.

The Saudi military aggression has claimed the lives of over 11,400 Yemenis, including women and children, according to the latest tally by a Yemeni monitoring group.

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