No Arms Shipments to Yemen’s Houthis

The Foreign Ministry denied claims by a senior US naval official that Iran has been sending arms and missiles to Yemen's Houthi Ansarullah movement.

Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Qasemi on Sunday rejected the allegations made by the head of US Naval Forces Central Command Vice Admiral Kevin Donegan, Press TV reported.

Donegan recently claimed that the US and allied nations had intercepted five shipments of weapons headed from Iran toward Yemen in the past year and a half.

Qasemi stressed that the false claims are being made as the West continues to sell deadly arms to Saudi Arabia.

"Every day, an uncountable number of lethal weapons, bombs and US missiles are dropped by Saudi Arabia on the defenseless and oppressed civilians in schools, hospitals, jails and homes," he said.

Qasemi stressed that these actions are nothing short of "war crimes".

  Bitter Tragedy

Qasemi also criticized Saudi Arabia's reelection as a member of the United Nations Human Rights Council, describing it as a catastrophe and a bitter tragedy.

He said Riyadh's reelection to the council is even more "regrettable" than the Saudis' atrocities in its impoverished neighbor.

Saudi Arabia has been launching airstrikes in Yemen since March 2015. The war was launched in an unsuccessful attempt to reinstate fugitive president Abd-Rabbuh Mansur Hadi. The UN puts the death toll from the military aggression at over 10,000.

Meanwhile, Yemen's Ansarullah movement has announced that a United Nations-proposed peace plan could be used as a "basis for discussion" but that it still contains "fundamental flaws."

The Houthi fighters noted that the plan, proposed by UN envoy Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, lacked details and had timeframe flaws and also did not include a "total, permanent ceasefire" or refer to the lifting of the blockade against the impoverished country.

Ansarullah said it would relay the objections to the UN envoy during his upcoming visit to Sana'a.

On Saturday, Hadi turned down the UN peace proposal. He said the plan "rewards" the Houthi Ansarullah movement.

The UN envoy submitted the peace plan to Yemeni warring sides during a three-day visit to Sana'a, with an aim to end the conflict.

Cheikh Ahmed has also held meetings with the Houthis and the allied General People's Congress to get their support for a return to a cessation of hostilities to allow aid deliveries.

Peace talks, which were held between Yemen's opposing parties in Kuwait, ended in deadlock in August.