Foreing Minister Zarif, who is on a LatAm tour now, has reacted to statements by US Secretary of State John Kerry who had accused Iran of sending military equipment to Yemen, Foreign Ministry’s Media Diplomacy Department reported on Friday.
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According to reports, recently Houthi rebels and ex-president Ali Saleh formed a Supreme National Council in Sanaa and called on Saudi Arabia to direct negotiations in an attempt to bypass stalled UN-sponsored peace talks.
US Secretary of State John Kerry has announced a new initiative to restart Yemen peace talks, offering Houthi rebels participation in the country’s unity government in exchange for a transfer of their heavy weapons to a third party.
Mr Kerry’s meeting with the GCC foreign ministers, British Middle East minister Tobias Ellwood and United Nations envoy to Yemen Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed were led by Saudi foreign minister Adel Al Jubeir and took place on Thursday afternoon.
Iran’s foreign minister is rejecting claims from Saudi Arabia that his country supplied the Shiite rebels in Yemen with missiles. Russian Federation and Iran, however, are strong backers of the Syrian president and have been accused of targeting moderate opposition forces, some of whom are supported by Washington and Gulf Arab states.
The new peace approach will have “both a security and political track simultaneously working in order to provide a comprehensive settlement”, said Kerry, adding that Gulf states had “agreed unanimously with this new initiative”.
Kerry said stability in Yemen is important to blunting the expansion of extremist groups there like the Islamic State and al-Qaida.
The Saudi-led coalition intervened in Yemen in March previous year after the rebels and their allies overran most of the country, prompting President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi to flee into exile.
Anti-rebel forces subsequently regained some territory but the Houthis still hold onto other regions, including Sanaa.
Since the conflict broke out in March 2015, more than 3.1 million Yemenis have been displaced and more than 80 percent of the country-or 21 million people-are in need of humanitarian assistance.
This post was syndicated from The Guardian NigeriaThe Guardian Nigeria.
Human Rights Watch has alleged that Saudi-led coalition airstrikes using us -supplied bombs killed at least 97 civilians in northwestern Yemen on March 15, 2016.
A Saudi child was killed and four people were injured Saturday by a military projectile fired from war-torn Yemen into southern Saudi Arabia.
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– On August 15, a coalition air strike killed 19 people at a hospital in northern Yemen that is aided by the French charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF).
