The deputy foreign minister for Arab and African Affairs said Saudi Arabia’s policy of imposing a blockade on Yemen’s ports and its prevention of the delivery of the Islamic Republic’s humanitarian aid to the war-affected nation will not go without response.
“We are considering all of options to help the Yemeni people (and ensure) the immediate dispatch of humanitarian aid and transfer of the injured,” IRNA quoted Hossein Amir-Abdollahian as saying on Sunday. The senior diplomat noted that Saudi Arabia is in no position to “decide for the countries in the region.”
Referring to the Saudi military intervention in Bahrain, he said it had no result but killing and injuring hundreds of people, creating a wide gap between the government and nation and causing instability in the Arab country.
He also said, “The continuation of the Saudi intervention in Yemen will have no product but insecurity for Saudi Arabia and the region.”
It was expected that Saudi Arabia takes steps to boost sustainable security in the region, he said, adding, “However, it has now turned into a main cause of regional instability.”
Amir-Abdollahian hoped that Riyadh would reconsider its wrong approach to the region and seek to play a “constructive role”, noting that, “Tehran has always supported mutual dialog (with Saudi Arabia) for diplomatic purposes.”
The deputy minister’s remarks came after the Saudi-led coalition conducted fresh airstrikes on Yemen last week, hours after it said it had ended a four-week air campaign against Houthi fighters.
Saudi fighter jets intercepted two Iranian airplanes carrying humanitarian aid to Yemen and prevented them from entering Yemeni airspace last week. Following Riyadh’s interception of the aid flights, the foreign ministry on Friday summoned Saudi Arabia’s chargé d’affaires to hear Iran’s protest about the move.
Int’l Action
The Majlis National Security and Foreign Policy Committee also condemned in its Sunday’s session “the illegal Saudi aggression” and the imposition of a naval blockade on Yemen, the spokesperson for the committee told ICANA.
“Lawmakers urged international organizations as well as regional countries to take serious measures against such imperious action,” Hossein Naqavi Hosseini said. In the session, the chairman of the committee, Alaeddin Boroujerdi, criticized the Saudi government for preventing the delivery of emergency humanitarian supplies to Yemen, expressing concern over the shortage of food and medicine and the poor medical services provided to the injured in the war-wracked Arab country.
