Iran Condemns Saudi-Led Air Raids on Yemeni Civilians

TEHRAN– Iran’s Foreign Ministry strongly condemned the intensification of airstrikes on Yemen’s residential areas by the Saudi and Emirati fighter jets, saying the cruel targeting of women and children signifies the invading coalition’s failure to achieve its targets in Yemen, Tasnim News reported.

In a statement on Tuesday, Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Qassemi condemned the Saudi-led airstrikes on Yemen’s residential areas in Sa’dah and on a passenger bus carrying the internally displaced Yemenis in Hudaydah.

Voicing sympathy with the families of victims of the attacks, Qassemi said the severe airstrikes on residential areas show the Saudi-led coalition’s desperation and failure to meet its objectives.

He also deplored the persistent support that certain Western countries are providing for Saudi Arabia in terms of arms support and reinforcing the kingdom’s arsenals.

The spokesman then called on the international community to push Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to stop slaughtering the Yemeni people.

Attacking residential areas and civilian targets, and preventing international organizations and relevant authorities from offering relief and aid are in violation of humanitarian principles and rules, he added.

The Iranian spokesman finally urged the UN and countries influential in the Yemen crisis to increase their efforts to immediately stop the attacks and adopt required measures to protect the lives and security of civilians, particularly women and children.

It came after the Saudi-led coalition launched two attacks on a residential home in the al-Dhaher district of the Sa’dah Governorate, killing four children and wounding six other children and a woman, according to IFP.

Also on Tuesday, at least nine civilians were killed and nearly a dozen others sustained injuries after warplanes belonging to the Saudi-led military coalition struck a bus carrying internally displaced persons (IDP) in war-battered Yemen’s western province of Hudaydah.

Since March 2015, Saudi Arabia and a number of its Arab allies have been carrying out airstrikes against the Houthi Ansarullah movement in an attempt to restore power to fugitive former president Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi, a close ally of Riyadh.

Over 14,000 Yemenis, including thousands of women and children, have lost their lives in the deadly military campaign.

M.Wassouf