Iraqi PM urges end to Saudi war on Yemen
The Iraqi prime minister has urged an immediate end to Saudi Arabia’s war on Yemen, saying Yemenis themselves must be allowed to attend to the affairs of impoverished country.
On Thursday, Premier Haider al-Abadi sharpened his earlier criticism of the Saudi aggression against Yemen, saying, "We think an end to this war of Yemen must be very soon and the only way forward is a political solution by Yemenis themselves."
A day earlier, Abadi had lashed out at Saudi Arabia for conducting aerial attacks against Yemen, saying Riyadh’s deadly military campaign had created huge humanitarian problems in the Arab country.
“To me, there is no logic to the operation at all in the first place,” he said on Wednesday, adding, “What is the aim? What are they trying to do? Mainly, the problem in Yemen is within Yemen.…There is a political problem.”
Saudi Arabia’s aggression against Yemen started on March 26 - without a UN mandate - in an attempt to restore power to fugitive former President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, a close ally of Riyadh. It has drawn widespread condemnation from international rights groups.
Civilians and Yemeni infrastructure have been targeted in the Saudi war.
According to Yemeni sources, some 2,600 people have been killed in the Saudi war over the past three weeks.
Adding to his Thursday remarks, Abadi said, "We are on the same boat in the region. If anybody makes a hole in that boat, we all will sink."
"We have suffered so much from wars in Iraq. We are very sensitive to wars, very sensitive to humanitarian costs," he added.
The Iraqi premier's comments came amid the prospect of refurbished mutual ties between Baghdad and Riyadh. Diplomatic relations between the two were severed in 1990, but restored in 2004 after the fall of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.
Saudi Arabia announced in January it was sending a delegation to Iraq ahead of opening an embassy in Baghdad where its last mission closed nearly 25 years ago.
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