Lavrov: US Shows Double Standards by Supporting Yemen’s Fleeing President
The United States has followed double standards by providing support for Yemen’s fleeing president and by denying it to the former Ukrainian president, Viktor Yanukovich, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said, FNA, reported.
“I have to use the hoary old cliché: the double standards are evident,” Lavrov said at a news conference at the end of his visit to Guatemala, Itar-Tass reported.
“In both cases the movement must be towards national conciliation,” he said.
“In Yemen the US acted diametrically opposite,” Lavrov said.
Yemen’s fugitive President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi arrived in the Saudi Arabia capital, Riyadh after he failed to stage a coup against the popular Ansarollah movement that ascended to power as a result of revolution.
Hadi arrived Thursday at a Riyadh airbase and was met by Saudi Defense Minister Prince Mohammed, the son of King Salman.
Former Saudi-backed Yemeni dictator, Ali Abdullah Saleh, also fled to Riyadh almost a couple of years ago, clearing the path for the then vice-president, Mansour Hadi, to become the leader of the Muslim Arab nation.
Hadi’s escape comes as Saudi Arabia and its allies began launching airstrikes in Yemen where the popular Ansarollah movement has ascended to power as a result of the Arab nation’s revolution.
Saudi Arabia launched airstrikes against Yemen early Thursday, one day after the US-backed Yemeni president fled the country.
Several Arab states, all of them allies of Washington, have joined the Saudi-led military offensive against Yemen.
Five Arab Gulf States — Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain, Qatar and Kuwait — backed by the US have declared war on Yemen in a joint statement issued on Thursday.
US President Barack Obama authorized the provision of logistical and intelligence support to the military operations, National Security Council Spokesperson Bernadette Meehan said late Wednesday night.
She added that while US forces were not taking direct military action in Yemen, Washington was establishing a Joint Planning Cell with Saudi Arabia to coordinate US military and intelligence support.
Riyadh claimed that it has bombed the positions of the Ansarollah fighters and launched attacks against the Sana’a airport and the Dulaimi airbase.
Israel, US ordering Saudi aggression against Yemen
On the other hand, Ansarullah Spokesman Zeifollah al-Shami said Yemeni tribes, army and popular forces are united to give a crushing response to the recent Saudi aggression, adding that Tel Aviv and Washington have ordered Riyadh to attack Yemen.
“We know that the Saudi aggression and airstrikes have taken place at the order of Israel and the US,” al-Shami told FNA on Friday.
He noted that the Yemeni people have put aside their differences to fight against the aggressors.
“God willingly, the crushing response to the aggressions of the Saudi enemy will come coming days,” al-Shami added.
At least 25 Yemeni civilians, including children, were killed and tens of other wounded in the Saudi air strike.
Also, 15 more people were killed and injured in a second round of massive attacks by the Saudi Arabian fighter jets in the Northwestern Yemeni city of Sa’ada on Friday.
Yemen’s al-Massira TV reported that the Saudi air force targeted the Yemeni’s civilians who were shopping in a market.
Five Arab Gulf States — Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain, Qatar and Kuwait — backed by the US have declared war on Yemen in a joint statement issued earlier Thursday.
She added that while US forces were not taking direct military action in Yemen, Washington was establishing a Joint Planning Cell with Saudi Arabia to coordinate US military and intelligence support.
The Saudi aggression has received growing international condemnation as it is pushing the region and the world into an unprecedented fast-growing war as its ISIL mercenaries are on the brink of complete annihilation in Iraq and Syria.
R.S