Tehran, Moscow Call For End To Saudi Attacks On Yemen

The Islamic Republic of Iran and Russia have demanded an immediate cessation of the Saudi airstrikes against Yemen.

Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister for Arab and African Affairs Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov exchanged views on the latest developments in the Middle East during a telephone conversation.

The two senior diplomats demanded an immediate halt to the Saudi military attacks against Yemen.

They also expressed deep concern over the ongoing killings of defenseless people and the humanitarian situation in Yemen, while throwing their support behind UN efforts to dispatch relief aid to the war-wracked country and to secure a ceasefire there.

The Iranian and Russian deputy foreign ministers, however, described the planned peace negotiations, which Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, the new UN envoy to Yemen, is preparing to hold in Geneva, Switzerland on May 28, as “insufficient” as Saudi Arabia airstrikes continue against the country.

Earlier on Friday, Saudi warplanes pounded the Razeh district of the northwestern Yemeni province of Sa’ada. No figure has been reported yet for possible casualties.

Saudi warplanes also carried out ten aerial attacks against two schools in the Maran district of the same province.

Moreover, Saudi fighter jets destroyed several communication towers in Yemen’s northwestern province of Amran, and launched four separate airstrikes north of Sana’a.

Saudi Arabia’s air campaign against Yemen started on March 26 – without a UN mandate – in a bid to undermine the Houthi Ansarullah movement and restore power to fugitive former President Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi, who is a staunch ally of Riyadh.

The United Nations says, since March 19, over 1,800 people have been killed and 7,330 injured due to the conflict in Yemen, which was exacerbated by the Saudi airstrikes.

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