Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif rejected as baseless the recent claims by US Secretary of State John Kerry that Iran is transferring arms to Yemen, saying Tehran is not a threat to the region.
"As the Islamic Republic of Iran has repeatedly announced, its military capacities are not a threat to any country and are solely meant for defense purposes," he said in a statement carried by IRNA on Friday.
According to media reports, Kerry criticized Iran on Thursday over alleged arms shipments to the Houthi Ansarullah movement, saying besides threatening the region, "it is a threat to the United States and it cannot continue".
Kerry made the accusations during a visit to Saudi Arabia, which has been waging a military campaign in Yemen for more than a year.
In fact, the US provides Saudi Army with extensive arms and advisory support, in a campaign aimed at undermining the Ansarullah movement and restoring to power the fugitive former president Abd-Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, Saudis' close ally.
Thousands have been killed since the beginning of the military campaign and human rights bodies blame Saudis for most of the civilian casualties in their impoverished southern neighbor.
Zarif said the US administration is a partner of Saudi Arabia in its war against "the innocent and oppressed people of Yemen" and "should take responsibility and account for all these crimes" against civilians and infrastructures like hospitals and schools.
"What threatens the region and the world today is ideological principles and financial and political bases of takfiri terrorism whose sources and causes Mr. Kerry should know well," he said.
Takfir means regarding Muslims who do not follow an extreme interpretation of Islam as apostates punishable by death. It is a main principle of Wahhabism, a faith openly preached by Saudi clerics who have the blessing of the ruling Saudi authorities, and a major ideological feature of terrorist groups such as Al-Qaeda and the self-styled Islamic State.
