Iran Urges West to Cease Backing for Saudi Arabia, Help End Yemeni Crisis

TEHRAN (defapress)- Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif once again blasted the Saudi-led aggression against the Yemeni people, and urged the western countries to cease support for the Riyadh government in its aggression against the people of Yemen and help put an end to the crisis in that country.

News ID: 69412

Date: 27 March 2018 - 23:19

"As Saudi Arabia is happy about being milked by the US, the Yemeni people have been forgotten by the West," Zarif wrote on his Twitter account on Monday.

"Some are exuberant to milk, and others even happier about being milked," Zarif added while posting a photo on Saudi crown prince's meeting with US President Donald Trump during Mohammad bin Salman's recent visit to the US.

The Iranian foreign minister reiterated that meanwhile, Yemenis, on whose backs juvenile delinquents seek to jumpstart careers, remain forgotten by the West.

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 15,700 Yemenis, including hundreds of women and children.

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.

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

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.

In a relevant development on Sunday, the Iranian foreign ministry in a statement condemned the Saudi-led coalition's aggression against the Yemeni people, stressing the necessity for ending the devastating war.

The Islamic Republic of Iran's foreign ministry considers the dire humanitarian conditions in Yemen as highly regretting and believes that this war results in noting but instability, insecurity, massacre of people, destruction of infrastructures and increased activities of terrorist groups, the statement said.

It warned that over 20mln people are on verge of famine and hunger misused by the Saudi-led coalition to pressure the Yemeni people, and underscored Iran's full preparedness to help the establishment of ceasefire and start of Yemeni-Yemeni talks.

"It is proper that the US and certain European countries adopt serious measures to stop war and continued war crimes in Yemen instead of supporting the aggressors and supply them with different types of arms and fighter jets," the statement added.

It also called on the international community to increase pressures on the Saudi-led coalition to end aggression and siege on Yemen.