US will fail in anti-Iran puppetry: Leader's aide

Rasa - A senior Iranian official rejects unfounded US accusations about the Islamic Republic providing Yemen’s Houthi Ansarullah fighters with ballistic missiles, saying Washington will never achieve any success in its "puppetry" against Tehran.

News ID: 436133

Date: 30 January 2018 - 03:31

RNA - "They [US officials] directly accuse Iran of meddling in Yemen while they are indirectly denying the bravery, resistance and self-sacrifice of the Yemeni nation," Ali Akbar Velayati, a senior advisor to Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei on international affairs, said in an interview with the IRIB on Monday.

On December 14, US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley presented what she claimed to be "undeniable" evidence, including the allegedly recovered pieces of a Yemeni missile, saying it proved that Iran was violating international law by giving missiles to the Houthi Ansarullah movement. The Houthis have been fighting back a Saudi-led aggression with allied Yemeni army troops and tribal fighters since March 2015.

A few days later, she said that the UN Security Council could strengthen the provisions in Resolution 2231, which was approved in July 2015 to endorse the multilateral nuclear deal with Iran, or adopt a new resolution banning Tehran from all activities related to ballistic missiles.

United Nations Security Council envoys are set to visit a military hangar in Washington later on Monday, where the US envoy to the UN presented the remnants of an alleged Iranian-made ballistic missile fired from Yemen on November 4 at the King Khalid International Airport near the Saudi capital, Riyadh.

Velayati said the Yemeni people have so far succeeded in defeating the Saudi-led coalition and the United Arab Emirates.

This is the reason why those who are conducting acts of aggression in Yemen have no option but to accuse other countries like Iran, the senior Iranian official pointed out.

He said the US, Saudi Arabia and the UAE would fail to solve any problem through leveling such accusations.

"If Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates continue their unwise policy, Yemen will turn into a quagmire, like Vietnam, for the US," Velayati warned.

He said Iran would continue its support for popular freedom movements in the region and would never hesitate in this regard even for a moment.

Velayati made the remarks a day after Chairman of the Iranian Parliament's Committee on National Security and Foreign Policy Alaeddin Boroujerdi said US President Donald Trump's effort to demonize Iran by accusing the Islamic Republic of supplying ballistic missiles to Yemen’s Houthi Ansarullah fighters was futile and an example of "beating the air."

"Trump is making desperate efforts to portray a negative image of the Islamic Republic of Iran and I believe these measures are [like] beating the air," Boroujerdi said.

Earlier this month, the chief commander of Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), Major General Mohammad Ali Jafari, dismissed the allegations leveled by the US and its allies about the Islamic Republic’s provision of missiles to Yemeni forces.

"Missiles fired at Saudi Arabia belong to Yemen, which have been overhauled and their range has been increased," Jafari said.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif also in December dismissed as "baseless" the US allegation against Iran, saying it was an attempt by Washington to whitewash its war crimes in the Middle East.

Zarif said, "In an attempt to cover up its presence in the region and measures, which can mostly amount to war crimes, the US levels baseless allegations against the Islamic Republic of Iran by displaying a piece of metal."

847/940