Iran on Thursday strongly condemned the allegations against it by members of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, saying that they are meant to divert the world's attention from the crimes being committed in Yemen by the Saudi-led military alliance.
"The countries that have invaded Yemen and are responsible for the years-long humanitarian crisis and daily killings of the defenseless Yemeni people with advanced military equipment as well as the destruction of the country's infrastructure issue such worthless statements and abuse regional and international institutions and mechanisms to cover up their atrocities and distract the attention of the people in the region and the world," Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Qasemi said.
Anti-Iran Claims
Permanent representatives of OIC member states issued a statement at the end of their meeting in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on Wednesday, in which they denounced a recent attack allegedly carried out by Yemen's Houthi group against two Saudi ships in the Red Sea's Bab al-Mandeb strait—one of the world's key oil tanker routes—and claimed that it had Tehran’s backing.
The statement called on the UN Security Council to "hold the Houthi militias and their Iranian sponsors accountable for their countless crimes against international law," Arab News reported.
Participants in the meeting, which was held at the request of Saudi Arabia, also repeated past accusations that Tehran supplies the Houthis with ballistic missiles and weapons. Iran denies the charges.
Eroded Trust
Qasemi said issuing such statements under the banner of the OIC will erode its members' trust in the organization, undermine its status in the international arena and prevent it from addressing the pressing issues confronting the Muslim world.
He said Riyadh's refusal to issue visas for Iranian authorities to attend the organization's meetings in Jeddah had led to the issuing of a "one-sided" and "unfair" statements under pressure from US-backed oil kingdom. In 2015, a Saudi-led coalition of several Arab countries launched a military intervention in Yemen, which is grappling with a civil war that has killed thousands of people, displaced millions and driven the country—already the poorest in the Arabian Peninsula—on the verge of famine.
