Iran to not tolerate blockade on Yemen

Iran will not permit the blockade on Yemen to continue, Hossein Amir Abdollahian, the Islamic Republic’s deputy foreign minister for Arab and African affairs said.

The Islamic Republic supports the “oppressed” Yemeni people and Yemeni-Yemeni dialogue for putting an end to the ongoing crisis in the country, Amir Abdollahian said, Iran ’s Tasnim news agency reported May 5.

The Saudi-led coalition has imposed an air and naval blockade on Yemen as part of its one-month campaign to oust the Iranian-backed Shiite Houthi rebels, who have taken most of the country and forced President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi to flee to Riyadh.

Saudi fighter jets have prevented Iranian planes from entering Yemeni airspace in recent weeks.

Iran says that the planes were carrying humanitarian aid to Yemen, meanwhile Saudi Arabia accuse the country of providing military support to the Yemeni Shiite rebels.

Amir Abdollahian said that Iran would continue its efforts to send humanitarian aids to Yemen.

He reiterated that Tehran considers Yemen’s security as its own and said that the Saudi Arabia has assaulted an Islamic state (Yemen) in the region.

He also accused the intelligence services of some regional countries of being in touch with terrorists in Syria, Iraq and Yemen.
Iran has repeatedly called on Riyadh to immediately halt the air strikes on Yemen, saying intra-Yemeni dialog is the only way to end the current political deadlock in the Arab country.

The Houthi militia group-Ansarullah, whose power base is in the main Shiite northern highlands, overran Sanaa unopposed last September.

At that time, an Iranian conservative MP, Ali Reza Zakani boasted that Sanaa was now the fourth Arab capital in Iranian hands – after Beirut (through Hezbollah), Damascus (through President Bashar al-Assad) and Baghdad (through Iraq ’s democratically elected Shia-led government).

Iran has repeatedly called on Riyadh to immediately halt the air strikes on Yemen, which have continued since March 25, saying intra-Yemeni dialog is the only way to end the current political deadlock in the Arab country.

Tehran also rejects claims about providing military support to the Yemeni rebels.

/By Trend/