Saturday, May 16, 2015

No Saudi Permission Needed for Yemen Aid Delivery: Iran Official
Sat May 16, 2015 12:49PM

A senior Iranian diplomat says Saudi Arabia is in no position to make decisions regarding the delivery of humanitarian aid to Yemen which has been targeted by Riyadh's military aggression.

“Saudi Arabia cannot decide for the UN and the countries helping Yemen,” Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, Iran's deputy foreign minister for Arab and African affairs, said on Saturday.

He added that the Saudi regime’s blocking of aid delivery to Yemen has denied 20 provinces humanitarian aid.

Amir-Abdollahian reaffirmed Iran's readiness to dispatch aid to Yemen, saying, “Tehran is ready to send humanitarian aid to all parts of Yemen, and [we] have stepped up the process of collecting and sending aid [to Yemen].”

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

The Riyadh regime has already blocked earlier Iranian aid deliveries to Yemen. Last month, it prevented two Iranian civilian planes from delivering medical aid and foodstuff to the Yemeni people.

The photo shows an Iranian aid ship, which is currently on its way to war-torn Yemen to deliver humanitarian aid.

In a move coordinated with the UN, Iran now plans to send planes carrying humanitarian aid to Yemen through Oman and Djibouti.

An Iranian ship carrying aid, including food and medical supplies, is also currently sailing through the Arabian Sea towards the Yemeni port city of Hudaidah.

In addition to the crew members, the ship is also carrying a number of volunteer doctors as well as international activists.

On Friday, the UN urged Saudi Arabia to ease harsh import restrictions on Yemen-bound cargo to speed up delivery of vital aid to the Yemeni people.


Iran Deputy Foreign Minister Reaffirms Political Solution to Yemen Crisis

Wed Apr 8, 2015 4:57AM
presstv.ir

A senior Iranian diplomat has reaffirmed Tehran’s support for a political solution to the crisis in Yemen, calling for an immediate end to the Saudi aggression against its neighbor.

“The crisis [in Yemen] can only be settled through political means, an immediate end to the Saudi military aggression against Yemen and national dialog among all parties to the conflict [to be held] in an impartial country,” said Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, the deputy foreign minister for Arab and African affairs.

The Iranian official made the remarks in a meeting with China's special envoy on Middle East affairs, Gong Xiaosheng, in Tehran on Tuesday night.

Amir-Abdollahian also said that back-to-back crises in the Middle East, which are fueled by foreign interference, have set the stage for the emergence of new terrorist groups, warning that terrorism is spreading beyond the region to other parts of the world.

He also hailed China's foreign policy and called on Beijing to play a more active role in preventing the spread of tension in the world.

The Chinese envoy, for his part, pointed to the Middle East developments, including the war in Yemen, and underlined the need to respect the sovereignty of countries when it comes to their political fate.

A Yemeni sits looking at destroyed houses in the village of Bani Matar, 70 kilometers (43 miles) West of Sana’a, on April 4, 2015, a day after it was hit by a Saudi airstrike. ©AFP
Gong also called for cooperation among regional countries to find political solutions to the conflicts in the Middle East.

Saudi Arabia’s military aggression against Yemen started on March 26, without a UN mandate, in a bid to restore power to fugitive president, Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi.

Hadi stepped down in January and refused to reconsider the decision despite calls by Houthi revolutionaries.

Hadi, who is now in the Saudi capital of Riyadh, lost his legitimacy as president of Yemen after he fled the capital to Aden in February, say popular committees backed by Houthis.

The Saudi-led airstrikes have killed hundreds of people and injured thousands more.

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