Iran supports unified Yemen, warns of plots to partition war-ravaged country

Iran says it supports a unified Yemen, warning against plots aimed at dividing the war-ravaged Arab country.

News ID: 446606

Date: 15 August 2019 - 11:31

RNA - “The coalition of Saudi and Emirati invaders, along with their mercenaries, who have over the past five years failed to break the will of people by using advanced weaponry, massacre and massive destruction and now see their defeat in the face of the spirit of resistance and resilience of people across Yemen, are seeking to partition Yemen through a suspicious plot,” Foreign Ministry Spokesman Abbas Moussavi said Wednesday.

He reaffirmed Iran’s support for “a unified Yemen” and said that all Yemenis shared the responsibility for maintaining the solidarity of the country.

He expressed hope that a halt to the war in Yemen would pave the way for the country’s different political groups to launch intra-Yemeni negotiations toward forming an inclusive government.

The Iranian official echoed warnings by Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei who called for strong resistance against the Saudi-led plots to divide Yemen.

The Leader said the Saudis, the Emiratis and their supporters, who have perpetrated great crimes in Yemen, are after “disintegrating Yemen, a plot that should be confronted decisively,” adding that the scheme is doomed to failure.

Ayatollah Khamenei made the comments in a meeting in Tehran on Tuesday with a visiting delegation from Yemen’s Houthi Ansarullah movement, led by its spokesman Mohammed Abdul-Salam.

Tens of thousands of people have died since March 2015, when Saudi Arabia and its allies — most notably the United Arab Emirates — launched a US-backed war against the Arab world’s most impoverished nation aimed at reinstating Yemen’s former Riyadh-friendly government and crushing the Houthis.

The comments come against a backdrop of tensions in southern Yemen, where UAE-backed separatist groups have engaged in fighting with militiamen loyal to the Saudi Arabia.

Emirati-trained troops allied to the Southern Transitional Council last week captured army bases and the presidential palace in the strategic port city of Aden in clashes with Saudi-backed troops allied to Hadi, who still lays a claim to power even as he resigned and fled Yemen in 2015.

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