Senior Assistant to the Iranian Foreign Minister for Special Political Affairs Ali Asqar Khaji called on the United Nations to make concrete efforts to help resolve the current unacceptable situation in Yemen and save the Yemeni civilians in a realistic and unbiased way.
Khaji made the remarks in a meeting with UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Yemen Martin Griffiths.
Khaji urged the UN to defend the rights of the people of Yemen in a bid to put an end to killing innocent people, as well as lifting the imposed sanctions on Yemen.
The diplomat, meantime, voiced Iran’s support for the political settlement of the crisis in Yemen, Tehran’s constructive measures to establish the ceasefire, complete elimination of the blockade, as well as advance the peace process in the country.
Griffiths, for his part, elaborated on the recent UN actions on drafting a joint statement, praising Iran’s constructive role in the political process of Yemen.
During the meeting, both sides exchanged views on observing the ceasefire and peace process in Yemen.
Saudi Arabia and its allies, including the United Arab Emirates, Morocco, and Sudan, launched a brutal war against Yemen in March 2015 in an attempt to reinstall Yemen’s former president Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi.
The aggression initially consisted of a bombing campaign but was later coupled with a naval blockade and the deployment of ground forces to Yemen. Hundreds of thousands of people have died since the war began, says Yemen’s Health Ministry.
The Saudi-led war has also taken a heavy toll on the country’s infrastructure, destroying hospitals, schools, and factories. The United Nations (UN) has said that a record 24 million Yemenis are in dire need of food, including 8.4 million threatened by severe hunger.
Despite Riyadh’s claims that it is bombing the positions of the Ansarullah fighters, Saudi bombers are flattening residential areas and civilian infrastructures.
According to several reports, the Saudi-led air campaign against Yemen has driven the impoverished country towards humanitarian disaster, as Saudi Arabia’s deadly campaign prevented the patients from travelling abroad for treatment and blocked the entry of medicine into the war-torn country.
