Deputy Foreign Minister says Iran Supports Yemen Peace Talks

Amir Abdollahian told United Nations Special Envoy to Yemen Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed earlier this week on a phone conversation that the settlement of the Yemeni crisis hinges on pursuit of a political approach, holding dialog among Yemeni sides, and encouraging all regional states to pursue talks as the solution to lead Yemen out of the current conflict.

“Iran’s principled approach is based on a halt to war and settlement of differences through dialogue. Iran supports any effort to this end,” he added.

The UN envoy, for his part, hailed constructive consultation with Iran on ways to resolve the Yemeni crisis through political approaches.

Ahmed called on all influential parties to help settle the crisis.

He said the Yemeni people are facing difficult conditions following Saudi Arabia’s airstrikes against their country and expressed hope that establishment of ceasefire would prepare the ground for the delivery of humanitarian aid to crisis-ridden zones.

The Saudi-led coalition has been striking Yemen for one year now, leaving thousands of innocent people dead, injured and displaced.

Amnesty International has urged Washington and London to halt arms deliveries to Saudi Arabia, which is leading a brutal war on Yemen.

In a new statement released one year into the Saudi-led intervention and titled “Reckless arms flows decimate civilian lives,” the rights watchdog urged the two Western powers and other states to “halt all transfers of arms for use in the Yemen conflict”.

“Saudi Arabia’s international partners have added fuel to the fire, flooding the region with arms despite the mounting evidence that such weaponry has facilitated appalling crimes and the clear risk that new supplies could be used for serious violations,” said James Lynch, Amnesty International’s regional deputy director.

Amnesty said that Washington and London, the largest arms suppliers to Saudi Arabia, “have continued to allow transfers of the type of arms that have been used to commit and facilitate serious abuses, generating a humanitarian crisis on an unprecedented scale.”

The group said it has documented since the beginning of the conflict at least 32 air strikes by the Saudi-led coalition “that appear to have violated international humanitarian law”.

The strikes had killed “almost 361 civilians, including at least 127 children”, it said.

Amnesty also accused the coalition of having “repeatedly used cluster munitions, inherently indiscriminate weapons whose use is prohibited, in attacks that have killed and maimed civilians.”

UN Security Council Resolution 2216, adopted in April last year, imposed an arms embargo only on the Yemeni army and Popular Committees that are resisting the Saudi-US aggression.

On February 25, the European Parliament called for an EU-wide arms embargo against Saudi Arabia, Amnesty said.

“In the absence of a Security Council embargo, Amnesty International is calling on all states to ensure that no party to the conflict in Yemen is supplied – either directly or indirectly – with weapons, munitions, military equipment or technology that would be used in the conflict.”

The World Health Organization says Saudi war on Yemen has killed almost 6,300 people since March 2015, and the United Nations has warned of an unfolding humanitarian catastrophe.