Iran Urges US, Europe to Discontinue Support for Aggressors in Yemen

Iran has urged the United States and “some European countries” to discontinue their support for aggressor states in Yemen, accusing them of destroying the impoverished Arab country and committing crimes against humanity.

“It would be more appropriate for the United States and some European countries to take serious steps to stop the war and incessant war crimes in Yemen instead of supporting aggressors against Yemen and supplying them with all kinds of arms and military aircraft,” Iran’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement released on Sunday to mark the beginning of the fourth year of the Yemen war, Press TV reported.

 The Iranian Foreign Ministry described as “very deplorable” the ongoing humanitarian situation in Yemen and said the aggressors have failed to achieve any of their objectives and have only ravaged the impoverished country and committed inhumane crimes there.

It emphasized that the Saudi-led coalition’s use of famine and hunger as a tool to exert pressure on the Yemeni people is an inhuman move, which runs counter to international humanitarian law.

According to international institutions, the continuation of Yemen’s air, sea, and land blockade by Saudi Arabia has led to the worst humanitarian situation in the world, putting more than 20 million Yemenis on the verge of famine and hunger.

More than 14,000 people have been killed since the onset of Saudi Arabia’s military campaign against Yemen in March 2015. Much of the Arabian Peninsula country’s infrastructure, including hospitals, schools and factories, has been reduced to rubble due to the war.

According to a report by Yemeni Ministry of Human Rights on Sunday, the ongoing Saudi-led military campaign against Yemen has killed and injured over 600,000 civilians, including more than a quarter of a million children.

More than 247,000 children have lost their lives due to severe malnutrition, and 17,608 civilians have died because of inability to travel abroad to seek medical treatment.

The United Nations says a record 22.2 million Yemenis are in need of food aid, including 8.4 million threatened by severe hunger.

A high-ranking UN aid official recently warned against the “catastrophic” living conditions in Yemen, stating that there is a growing risk of famine and cholera there.

    “After three years of conflict, conditions in Yemen are catastrophic,” John Ging, the UN director of aid operations, told the UN Security Council on February 27.

Ging said cholera had infected 1.1 million people in Yemen since last April, and a new outbreak of diphtheria has occurred in the war-ravaged Arab country since 1982.

The Iranian Foreign Ministry further pointed to the Islamic Republic’s four-point peace plan for Yemen and once again reiterated that the Yemeni crisis can only be solved through a political approach.

    “The Islamic Republic of Iran calls on the international community to increase international pressure in order to end the aggression and siege in Yemen,” the statement said.

“Iran is quite ready to help the opposing sides establish a ceasefire and start Yemeni-Yemeni dialogue and find a peaceful solution to the Yemeni crisis,” it added.

In April 2015, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif submitted a four-point peace plan for Yemen to the United Nations in an attempt to end the bloodshed in the Arab country.

H.M