Yemen disintegration to benefit no side in Mideast: Iran official

An Iranian deputy foreign minister has warned against foreign interference in Yemen, saying the disintegration of the Arab country would benefit "no side" in the Middle East region.

“Moving towards Yemen’s disintegration will be to the benefit of no side in the region,” Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, the Iranian deputy foreign minister for Arab and African affairs, said on Friday.

The Iranian official warned those seeking to impose a civil war in Yemen against making a strategic miscalculation with respect to the Arab country.

He said that the Yemeni people and leaders would not allow their “united” country to turn into another Somalia or Libya.

Amir-Abdollahian also reaffirmed Iran’s support for unity and solidarity in Yemen.

The Islamic Republic of Iran supports Yemen’s national unity and the implementation of a peace agreement in the country as well as the participation of all Yemeni groups, he added.

In September 2014, Houthi fighters gained control of the capital. Houthis had set a deadline for the political parties to put aside their differences and fill the power vacuum, but the deadline was missed without any change in the country’s political scene.

On Wednesday, the UN Security Council called on all sides in Yemen to settle their differences through “dialog and consultation,” amid rising political tension in the Arab country.

The UN call for dialog came a day after Yemen's President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, who had stepped down in late January, officially withdrew his resignation after fleeing the capital, Sana’a to the southern city of Aden, where he reportedly plans to establish a rival power base.

Yemen’s Houthi Ansarullah movement, however, said that Hadi had lost his legitimacy as head of state and was being sought as a fugitive from justice.

The Houthi movement played a key role in the 2011 popular uprising that forced dictator Ali Abdullah Saleh to quit after 33 years in power.

AR/NN/HMV

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