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FM Zarif: Iran welcomes any initiative to restore peace, prosperity to Yemen

This file photo taken on August 9, 2019 shows tribal gunmen loyal to Yemen’s Houthi Ansarullah movement, who are taking part in a rally against the ongoing Saudi-led blockade of their country, in Sana'a. (via AFP)

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif says Tehran welcomes “peaceful solutions” to a years-long war imposed by a Saudi-led military coalition on Yemen, stressing that it supports any initiative seeking to bring back prosperity to the impoverished country through dialogue.

In a Thursday tweet, Zarif also said in Arabic that the Islamic Republic saw no point in the continuation of a military intervention and a crippling blockade against Yemen.

“Iran does not see any point in the continuation of the war and siege in Yemen, welcomes peaceful solutions and encourages all parties to move forward in this regard and supports initiatives that call for dialogue to restore prosperity to Yemen,” Iran’s top diplomat said in his tweet.

Iran has time and again expressed its support for Yemeni-Yemeni peace negotiations as well as the full implementation of a UN-brokered agreement reached in the Swedish capital city of Stockholm in 2018.

Saudi Arabia and a number of its allies launched a devastating campaign against Yemen in March 2015, with the goal of bringing the government of former President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi back to power and eliminating the Yemeni Houthi Ansarullah movement, whose fighters have been significantly helping the Yemeni army in defending the country against invaders since the onset of war.

The US-based Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED), a nonprofit conflict-research organization, estimates that the war has claimed more than 100,000 lives since.

The Saudi-led war has also taken a heavy toll on Yemen’s infrastructure, destroying hospitals, schools, and factories. According to the United Nations, more than 24 million people are in dire need of humanitarian aid, including 10 million suffering from extreme levels of hunger.

The invading coalition has also been enforcing a tight embargo the Sana’a International Airport in the capital — which acts as a lifeline for the impoverished nation — since August 2015, when it also imposed a tight naval blockade on country, particularly on Hudaydah, which also acts as another lifeline for Yemen.

Well more than four years later, the coalition has been bogged down in the war, which it had wished to end in a matter of “months.”

A number of Western countries, the US, France and Britain in particular, are accused of being complicit in the ongoing aggression as they supply Saudi Arabia with advanced weapons and military equipment as well as logistical and intelligence assistance.


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