Not too late to stop nightmare of war on Yemen, Zarif tells Saudis
On the eve of the fifth year of Saudi Arabia’s bloody war on Yemen, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif says the regime in Riyadh should put an end to the “nightmare that this war has become.”
“On the eve of the war’s shameful FIFTH YEAR, a reminder that it’s not too late to stop the nightmare that this war has become,” Zarif said in a post on his official Twitter account on Tuesday.
The top Iranian diplomat also pointed to Iran’s four-point peace plan that he proposed in the weeks that the campaign had begun in 2015, and said Saudi Arabia and its allies rejected the proposal “claiming that victory was at hand within THREE WEEKS.”
In April 2015, Iran’s Foreign Minister Zarif submitted a four-point peace plan for Yemen to the United Nations in an attempt to end the bloodshed in the Arab country.
“It is imperative for the international community to get more effectively involved in ending the senseless aerial attacks and establishing a ceasefire,” Zarif said in the letter, adding that Tehran is ready to cooperate with the UN “to facilitate and encourage an immediate end to these senseless bombardments and initiation of a genuine dialogue to find a political solution to this tragic crisis.”
In a statement released on Monday on the occasion of the fourth anniversary of the beginning of Saudi Arabia’s war of aggression against Yemen, the Iranian Foreign Ministry said the Islamic Republic supports an overarching ceasefire in Yemen while calling for an end to the “tyrannical” economic and human blockade imposed on the Yemeni people.
In its statement, Iran’s Foreign Ministry urged all political groups in Yemen to reach a political agreement, which would meet the demands of the country’s people while asking the international community to support any effort made to alleviate the suffering of Yemeni people, especially women and children.
On Tuesday, millions of Yemenis took to the streets of the capital Sana’a and other major cities to mark the anniversary and reiterate their steadfastness in the face of the ongoing aggression.
Many provinces and cities, including Sana’a, Sa’ada, Ta’izz, Ibb, Bayda and Raymah, have been the scene of mass rallies since Monday, Yemen’s al-Masirah television network reported.
Saudi Arabia and a number of its regional allies launched the devastating campaign on March 26, 2015, with the aim of bringing a former government to power and crushing the Houthi Ansarullah movement. Riyadh has failed to fulfill its objectives.
According to a new report by the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED), a nonprofit conflict-research organization, the Saudi-led war has so far claimed the lives of around 56,000 Yemenis.
The Saudi-led war has also taken a heavy toll on the country’s infrastructure, destroying hospitals, schools, and factories. The UN has already said that a record 22.2 million Yemenis are in dire need of food, including 8.4 million threatened by severe hunger. According to the world body, Yemen is suffering from the most severe famine in more than 100 years.
A number of Western countries, the US and Britain in particular, are also accused of being complicit in the ongoing aggression as they supply the Riyadh regime with advanced weapons and military equipment as well as logistical and intelligence assistance.
