Iran Urges Saudi Rulers to End Yemen War, Engage in Dialogue Instead

TEHRAN (defapress)- Iranian Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the UN Gholamali Khoshrou categorically dismissed baseless allegations by Saudi Arabia that Tehran has sent missiles to Yemen, and urged the Riyadh government to stop "warmongering” and instead engage in dialogue with its neighboring country.

News ID: 69427

Date: 28 March 2018 - 22:49

Khoshrou's remarks came in response to a letter submitted by his Saudi counterpart Abdullah al-Muallami to the UN Security Council demanding that Iran to be held accountable for allegedly supplying Yemen’s Ansarullah fighters with ballistic missiles.

"The three-year Saudi war on Yemen has no legitimacy; the bombardment campaign against the Arab state has achieved nothing but massacre, hunger, diseases and the destruction of its infrastructure," Khoshrou said on Wednesday, addressing a UN meeting.

The Iranian envoy underlined that it is not the first time Saudi Arabia enters into correspondence against Iran in order to cover up its defeats in Yemen, and the international community is well aware of this fact.

"With adventurism and inexperience, the Saudis have helped inflict cholera on millions of Yemeni people and targeted children and civilians in the course of their bombardments,” Khoshrou said.

The senior diplomat said that the Saudi regime should "abandon adventurism and warmongering and engage in constructive political dialog with Yemen, which is its neighbor, while respecting the people’s rights".

"Iran basically believes in no other solution than a political one to the conflict in Yemen," he added.

On Monday, the Saudi-led coalition, which is engaged in a bloody military campaign against Yemen, displayed wreckage of what it claimed to be fragments of ballistic missiles supplied to the Houthis by Iran.

Iran dismissed the groundless claims, saying the accusations are aimed at diverting attention from Riyadh’s war crimes in Yemen.

The Saudi letter to the UN coincided with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s meeting with UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres in New York.

During the meeting, bin Salman presented a $930-million check to the UN chief for “efforts to ease” the humanitarian crisis of the kingdom's own making in Yemen.

The money was from both Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, which is Riyadh’s main ally in the destructive war on Yemen.

Saudi Arabia, which has been blamed for most civilian casualties in Yemen, is infamous for what human rights groups call “blackmailing” the UN to keep silent on its atrocities in Yemen.

In 2016, Saudi Arabia’s name appeared in a blacklist of child killers, but then-UN chief Ban Ki-moon removed it from the list shortly afterwards.

Several Western countries, the US and the UK in particular, are accused of being complicit in the Saudi-led aggression on Yemen as they supply the Riyadh regime with advanced weapons and military equipment.