Saudi truce in Yemen US-recommended show: Iran official

A senior Iranian official says Saudi Arabia’s announcement of a five-day ceasefire in its brutal air campaign against Yemen is nothing but a US-recommended show.

“In the first ceasefire, the Saudis failed to observe it and now they are speaking about this issue which looks like a show staged upon the recommendation of US Secretary of State [John Kerry] who has traveled to the region,” Ali Akbar Velayati, a senior advisor to Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, told reporters on Sunday.

Saudi Arabia has announced ceasefire two times since it attacked Yemen, but violated the first ceasefire in April and continued to carry out brutal airstrikes against the Yemeni people, Velayati said, adding that Kerry’s visit to the Middle East region is aimed at expressing Washington's support for the Saudi attacks on Yemen.

He noted that the US is pursuing a contradictory policy towards Saudi Arabia and Yemen, adding that Washington makes a humanitarian gesture by expressing its support for the ceasefire in Yemen and the dispatch of humanitarian aid while, at the same time, it throws its weight behind Riyadh’s aggression.

On April 21, Saudi Arabia announced the end of the first phase of its unlawful military operation but airstrikes have continued with Saudi bombers targeting different areas across the country in the new phase.

At a press conference with the US secretary of state in Riyadh on May 7, Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir announced plans for a five-day ceasefire in Riyadh’s brutal war on Yemen with the ostensible aim of facilitating humanitarian aid to people in the impoverished Arab state.

The Yemeni army on Sunday voiced consent to Saudi Arabia’s proposal to halt its military attacks against Yemen.

Earlier in the day, the Ansarullah fighters of the Houthi movement also voiced their “readiness to deal positively with any efforts, calls or measures that would help end the suffering.”

Saudi Arabia started its military aggression against Yemen on March 26 - without a UN mandate - in a bid to undermine the Houthi Ansarullah movement and to restore power to Yemen’s fugitive former president, Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi, who is a staunch ally of Riyadh.

The Saudi military campaign has reportedly claimed the lives of over 1,200 people so far and injured thousands of others. Hundreds of women and children are among the victims, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

The Al Saud regime has imposed a blockade on the delivery of relief supplies to the war-stricken people of Yemen in defiance of calls by international aid groups.

SF/KA/SS

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