DM Dismisses US Claims of Iran's Military Support for Yemen

Rasa - Iranian Defense Minister Brigadier General Amir Hatami rejected the US officials' claims that the Yemeni people could resist against the Saudi-led coalition's devastating war for four years due to Tehran's support.

News ID: 441844

Date: 02 December 2018 - 13:18

RNA - "Today, Yemen has turned into a thorn in the eyes of the Americans and it has stood against a big plot. The Americans have raised allegations against Iran, claiming that we have not allowed them to win the war in Yemen," General Hatami said, addressing a forum in Tehran on Saturday.

"They think that the Yemeni people's resistance is due to Iran's support but we support them spiritually and the resistant spirit of the nations who are not willing to come along with the Americans' oppression have made them victorious," he added.

Saudi Arabia and a number of its regional allies launched a devastating campaign against Yemen in March 2015, with the aim of bringing the government of former Yemeni President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi back to power and crushing the Ansarullah movement but they failed after nearly 4 years.

Official UN figures say that more than 10,000 people have been killed in Yemen since the Saudi-led bombing campaign began in March 2015. But the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED) believes that at least 56,000 people have lost their lives in the war. The violence has also left around two-thirds of Yemen’s population of 27 million relying on aid amid an ongoing strict naval and aerial blockade. According to the world body, Yemen is suffering from the most severe famine in more than 100 years.

Save the Children, a charity, has reported that more than 84,700 children under the age of five may have starved to death in Yemen since the Saudi regime and a coalition of its allies launched the brutal war on the already-impoverished nation.

According to Fars News Agancy, Yemen is the world’s largest humanitarian crisis with more than 22 million people in need and is seeing a spike in needs, fuelled by ongoing conflict, a collapsing economy and diminished social services and livelihoods.

A number of Western countries, the US, the UK, and France in particular, are accused of being complicit in the ongoing aggression as they supply the Riyadh regime with advanced weapons and military equipment as well as logistical and intelligence assistance.

an Oxfam representative stated that the US, UK, and French governments are behind millions of people starving in Yemen because they are “supporting this war".

“We have 14 million people starving,” Richard Stanforth, Oxfam UK’s regional policy officer for the Middle East, told RT, adding that "British, French, American governments are all behind this, they are all supporting this war".

A UN panel has compiled a detailed report of civilian casualties caused by the Saudi military and its allies during their war against Yemen, saying the Riyadh-led coalition has used precision-guided munitions in its raids on civilian targets.

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