Iranian Leader's Top Aide:

Separation Wall Signifies Israel's Weakness

TEHRAN (defapress)- Iranian Supreme Leader's top aide for international affairs Ali Akbar Velayati downplayed the importance of Israel's attempts to establish alliance with a number of Saudi-led Arab states against Iran, saying Israel is so fragile and vulnerable that it has built walls to protect itself.

News ID: 67571

Date: 17 December 2017 - 19:25

Velayati played down any possible alliance between Israel and Saudi Arabia against Iran.

He told reporters in Tehran on Sunday that Riyadh has long had covert ties with Israel ever since the Zionist regime was born, and has just come to display a part of the reality of its cooperation with Tel Aviv recently. "They think that they can move against Iran in collaboration with the Zionists, but if the Zionists were powerful at all, they would not erect walls around their settlements."

Elsewhere, Velayati blasted US Envoy to the UN Nikki Haley's allegations that Iran has supplied the Yemenis with missiles, and said she lacks the least information and is like her boss who utters "baseless and ridiculous" words.

"The Islamic Republic of Iran has not supplied Yemen with any missile at all," he added.

During her press conference on Thursday, Haley appeared standing before what she claimed was debris of a missile from an Iranian-origin dispatched to Yemen and then fired to Saudi Arabia. Tehran immediately and categorically rejected all those charges.

Deputy Chief of Staff and Spokesman of Iran's Armed Forces Brigadier General Massoud Jazzayeri derided her remarks on Saturday, saying that Washington is suffering misjudgment due to an acute shortage of intel.

General Jazzayeri joined a wide range of other Iranian officials to reject the claim, stressing that Haley is suffering a lack of knowledge on issues related to weapons and military affairs.

"Had the Americans been informed of the high power of the Yemeni resistance's missile technology, they would not have uttered such ridiculous comments," he said.

General Jazzayeri downplayed the US power to work out international consensus against Iran and the resistance front, and said, "Therefore, the only way for the US to go past the troubles it is grappling with is to seriously change its behavior and stop warmongering and criminal actions in different parts of the world."

In relevant remarks on Saturday, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif dismissed Washington's "baseless" allegations that Tehran has provided Yemen with missiles, stressing that such claims are raised to divert public attention from the US assistance to the Saudi bombing of Yemen, and the ISIL terrorists in the region.

Zarif dismissed the allegations on Saturday, and underlined, "The aim of these allegations is to forget the US partnership in crimes which are committed in our region, specially Yemen; they also raise such allegations to forget Trump's highly dangerous move to recognize Beit al-Moqaddas (al-Quds city) as the Zionist regime's capital."

He referred to a recent report by the US think-tanks, confirming that the US and Saudi weapons were used by the ISIL against the regional states, and said, "Now a country which has supplied the Saudi government with cluster bombs which kill the Yemeni children and old men, forges allegations against us."

Zarif warned of the pains the Yemeni people are suffering due to the US-Saudi-led war and siege against the poor Arab country, and said, "The US raises baseless allegations against the Islamic Republic of Iran by displaying a piece of iron to cap its war crimes in the region."

Noting that the UN has found the US-made parts in the Yemeni missiles, he said, "The origin of weapons in the region is fully clear and what is clear is that the fighter jets and bombs which pound the Yemeni people are the US fighters and bombs and it is a reality that no one can conceal."

Iran' permanent mission at the UN on Thursday categorically rejected as "fabricated" the evidence presented by Haley that it had supplied Yemen with a missile fired at Saudi Arabia, saying the accusations were baseless.

"As part of the baseless allegations raised by the US administration against the Islamic Republic of Iran throughout the last 10 months, the US ambassador accused Iran of supplying missiles to Yemen once again; a baseless allegation that we categorically reject," Iran's Envoy to the UN Gholamali Khoshrou said.

The Saudi-led coalition has long imposed a blockade of Yemen's air and sea ports and borders and has intensified the siege after the missile was fired at Riyadh, citing concerns that weapons were being smuggled into Yemen.

The siege has pushed the impoverished country into a humanitarian catastrophe.

A recent survey showed that almost one third of families have gaps in their diets, and hardly ever consume foods like pulses, vegetables, fruit, dairy products or meat.

More than 3 million pregnant and nursing women and children under 5 need support to prevent or cure malnutrition.

The United Nations has also warned that 8.4 million people in war-torn Yemen are “a step away from famine”, as Saudi Arabia and its allies are ceaselessly pounding the impoverished country.

"The lives of millions of people, including 8.4 million Yemenis who are a step away from famine, hinge on our ability to continue our operations and to provide health, safe water, shelter and nutrition support," Jamie McGoldrick, the UN's humanitarian coordinator for Yemen, said in a statement on Monday.

"The continuing blockade of ports is limiting supplies of fuel, food and medicines, dramatically increasing the number of vulnerable people who need help," he added.

The United Nations had warned that millions of people will die in Yemen, in what will be the world's worst famine crisis in decades, unless the Saudi-led military coalition ends its devastating blockade and allows aid into the country.

Saudi Arabia has been striking Yemen since March 2015 to restore power to fugitive president Mansour Hadi, a close ally of Riyadh. The Saudi-led aggression has so far killed at least 15,200 Yemenis, mostly civilians.

Despite Riyadh's claims that it is bombing the positions of the Ansarullah fighters, Saudi bombers are flattening residential areas and civilian infrastructures.

According to several reports, the Saudi-led air campaign against Yemen has driven the impoverished country towards humanitarian disaster, as Saudi Arabia's deadly campaign prevented the patients from travelling abroad for treatment and blocked the entry of medicine into the war-torn country.