Iran, UN Stress End of Humanitarian Disaster in Yemen, Finding Comprehensive Political Solutions

Rasa - High-ranking Iranian and United Nations officials in a meeting in Tehran discussed the latest developments in Yemen, emphasizing the need for ending the humanitarian catastrophe in the poor Arab country.

News ID: 431632

Date: 12 August 2017 - 21:54

RNA - The meeting was held between Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and UN Special Envoy for Yemen Ismail Walad Sheikh Ahmed in Tehran on Saturday afternoon.

During the meeting, Zarif and Sheikh Ahmed underscored the necessity for ending the humanitarian disaster and finding comprehensive political solutions to the crisis in Yemen.

Sheikh Ahmed had earlier today met with Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Hossein Jaberi Ansari in Tehran.

"We support the UN efforts for resolving the crisis in Yemen more rapidly and coming out of the current situation in general," Jaberi Ansari told reporters after the meeting.

He called for UN impartiality and efforts to create trust between the two sides of the war in Yemen, and expressed the hope that the devastating war and siege on the poor Arab country would end as soon as possible and the ground would be paved for direct serious talks and move towards the political settlement of the crisis using the Yemeni nation's votes.

Jaberi Ansari also said that Walad Sheikh has urged Iran's help to the success of efforts to end the crisis in Yemen.

Yemen has been facing war by a Saudi-led coalition since March 2015. Leading a number of its vassal states, Saudi Arabia launched the military aggression on Yemen to reinstall a Riyadh-friendly former president. The war, however, has failed to achieve either of the goals, morphing into a protracted conflict and causing a humanitarian crisis in Yemen.

UN-brokered talks between Yemen’s warring sides have also failed to end the conflict so far.

Iran has repeatedly called for a swift end to the brutal Saudi-led military campaign.

The war has so far killed over 14,300 Yemenis.

The US and the UK have been providing the bulk of the weapons used by the Saudi-led forces against Yemen. The US is also providing other assistance, including the provision of intelligence, to the invading forces.

The aggression has been accompanied by a Saudi-led naval and aerial blockade on Yemen.

It has also taken a heavy toll on Yemen’s infrastructure and led to a cholera epidemic in the country. Thousands of people have died since the outbreak of the cholera epidemic in April, according to the latest figures provided by the World Health Organization (WHO).

An estimated 70 percent of Yemen’s 28 million population is said to be in desperate need of humanitarian aid.

Last week, Yemen’s blood bank appealed to the international community to support the center as its medical supplies have nearly run out.

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