US envoy's Iran missile claim ridiculous: Velayati
A senior Iranian official has dismissed as "baseless and ridiculous" the recent US claim about Iran providing missiles to Yemen's Houthi Ansarullah movement, saying even international experts have mocked the accusation.
"The Islamic Republic of Iran has never given missiles to Yemen," Ali Akbar Velayati, a senior advisor to Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei on international affairs, said on Sunday.
He added that the US diplomat lacks the least information required to comment on international issues, adding, "She is similar to her boss (US President Donald Trump) who makes unfounded remarks based on absurd information."
US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley went on live television Thursday to display debris purportedly from a ballistic missile that had been fired from Yemen at an airport in the Saudi capital Riyadh.
On November 4, a missile fired from Yemen targeted King Khalid International Airport near Riyadh, reaching the Saudi capital for the first time.
Tehran rejected the allegation as “provocative and baseless,” saying the Yemenis had shown an “independent” reaction to the Saudi bombing campaign on their country.
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif once again on Saturday dismissed as "baseless" Haley's allegation and said it was an attempt by Washington to whitewash its war crimes in the Middle East.
"In an attempt to cover up its presence in the region and measures, which can mostly amount to war crimes, the US levels baseless allegations against the Islamic Republic of Iran by displaying a piece of metal," Zarif told reporters.
US, Europe provide bombs to Saudi Arabia: IRGC commander
Meanwhile, a commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) reacted to Haley's remarks by saying that the United States and Europe provided bombs to Saudi Arabia to kill civilians in Yemen over the past three years.
"The US envoy showed a pipe and said the Iranians' fingerprints were on it," the IRGC spokesman, Brigadier General Ramezan Sharif, said on Sunday.
He added that the former Soviet Union and North Korea had given large stockpile of missiles to Yemen.
Saudi Arabia and its allies launched the war on Yemen in March 2015 in a bid to crush the Houthi movement and reinstate the former Riyadh-friendly regime, but they have achieved neither of their goals.
The Saudi-led war, which has been accompanied by a naval and aerial blockade on Yemen, has so far killed over 12,000 people and led to a humanitarian crisis as well as a deadly cholera outbreak.
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