Spokesman: Accusing Iran of smuggling arms to Yemen 'baseless', part of aggressors’ hackneyed scenario’

The Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman has categorically rejected claims made by an Arab media outlet about the Islamic Republic’s smuggling of weapons to war-torn Yemen, saying such allegations are baseless and part of a hackneyed scenario by the Western-backed aggressor coalition.

Nasser Kan'ani made the remark in a news briefing on Monday after an Arab outlet claimed that Iran had been smuggling weapons and military equipment from the country’s southern port city of Bandar Abbas to Yemen's besieged port of Hudaydah.

“The aggressor coalition and their Western sponsors must be held to account for the crimes they have been committing in Yemen for more than seven years, which have led to the killing of innocent people and the destruction of Yemen’s infrastructure, and have caused the biggest humanitarian disaster of the century,” Kan'ani told reporters.

The Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman stressed that leveling accusations against the Islamic Republic is aimed at deflecting the regional and international public opinion away from the realities on the ground in Yemen.

“The Islamic Republic’s support for the Yemeni people has been political in nature since the beginning of the country's crisis, and Iran has always backed a peaceful process as well as the United Nations’ efforts for a political solution to the devastating war and the continuation of ceasefire,” Kan'ani said.

The official added, “The continuation of hostile policies and the repetition of threadbare scenarios, despite the [Saudi-led coalition's] claim about trying to stop the conflict in Yemen, will not lead to a new result in favor of the aggressors.”

In contravention of truce, Saudi-led forces carry out fresh rounds of airstrikes on Yemen

The Saudi-led coalition has violated the UN-brokered Yemen ceasefire more than 158 times in the last 24 hours, Yemeni media say.

Saudi Arabia launched the devastating war on Yemen in March 2015 in collaboration with its Arab allies and with arms and logistics support from the US and other Western states.

The objective was to reinstall the Riyadh-friendly regime of Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi and crush the Ansarullah resistance movement, which has been running state affairs in the absence of a functional government in Yemen.

While the Saudi-led coalition has failed to meet any of its objectives, the war has killed hundreds of thousands of Yemenis and spawned the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

While the Saudi-led coalition has failed to achieve any of its objectives, the war has killed hundreds of thousands of Yemenis and spawned the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

The United Nations brokered a truce between the coalition and Ansarullah, which came into effect in April, and was extended for another two months on June 2.

The Saudi-led coalition has on numerous occasions violated the ceasefire.

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