Iran rejects Saudi-led coalition’s “provocative, irresponsible” accusations

Iran has rejected “destructive, irresponsible, provocative and baseless” allegations leveled by the Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen, accusing Tehran of being behind a Saturday missile attack on Riyadh.

Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Qassemi made the remarks on Monday after the coalition, which includes a number of Saudi Arabia’s vassal states under its command, said in a statement earlier in the day that Iran was to blame for a Yemeni missile strike on Riyadh.

He pointed to Saudi war crimes and acts of aggression against Yemen, saying that Yemenis had showed an “independent” reaction to Saudi attacks that was not rooted in another country’s measures or provocations.

The Saudis, who have failed to achieve their ominous objectives through a long-term war in Yemen, have leveled “delusive, baseless and totally false” accusations against Tehran by launching an inept and inapt psychological campaign, but through such measures, they are only creating more obstacles in the path of their failing coalition, Qassemi said.

The Iranian spokesperson urged the Saudis to stop playing a blame game as well as leveling unfounded accusations against others and carrying out attacks on innocent and defenseless Yemeni people as soon as possible.

They had better prepare the ground for Yemeni-Yemeni dialogue and the establishment of peace in the impoverished country, Qassemi said.

Zarif: Riyadh blames Iran for consequences of its ‘wars of aggression’

In a relevant development on Monday, Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif published a post on his official Twitter account, taking Saudi Arabia to task for its destabilizing role in the region.

Zarif also noted that while Riyadh has been waging “wars of aggression” across region, it blames the Islamic Republic for the consequences of its “risky provocations.”

“KSA is engaged in wars of aggression, regional bullying, destabilizing behavior & risky provocations. It blames Iran for the consequences,” Zarif said in his tweet.

Zarif also referred to crimes committed by the Saudi-led military coalition fighting against the Houthi Ansarullah fighters in Yemen, saying that the Saudi-led coalition has so far killed thousands of innocent people in Yemen.

Iran’s foreign minister also blamed Riyadh’s military campaign in Yemen as the main cause behind the spread of cholera and famine in the country

He also countercharged Saudi Arabia of interfering in domestic affairs of Arab countries, an accusation that Saudi Arabia has leveled against Iran on many occasions, noting that the repression of dissidents in Bahrain by the Al Khalifah regime took place following a visit to Riyadh by US President Donald Trump.

In another tweet, Zarif implied that Saudi Arabia had been even behind the recent resignation of Lebanon’s Prime Minister Saad Hariri, who accused Iran of interference in Lebanon’s affairs.

Hariri announced his resignation in a televised statement on Saturday, citing many reasons, including the security situation in Lebanon, for his sudden decision. He also said that he sensed a plot being hatched against his life.

Hariri accused Iran and the Lebanese Resistance Movement Hezbollah of meddling in Arab countries’ affairs; an allegation the two have repeatedly denied.

On Sunday, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, the secretary general of the Lebanese Hezbollah resistance movement, said the country’s prime minister had been under pressure to resign his post.

Nasrallah noted that the announcement of Hariri’s resignation came after a number of visits to Saudi Arabia, adding that the text and style of his resignation clearly showed that it was not his own text and was a Saudi text dictated to the Lebanese prime minister.

Following a missile strike from neighboring Yemen, Saudi Arabia ramped up threats against Iran, saying there would be a response “in the appropriate time and manner.”

That missile was fired by the Houthi Ansarullah movement, which together with allied Yemeni army factions and tribal fighters has been fighting off the Saudi-led coalition. Riyadh and its allies accuse the Houthis of receiving financial and arms support from Iran. The Islamic Republic rejects the accusations.

The Saudi-led coalition went further in its Sunday statement, claiming that the Houthis were under Iran’s “direct command.”

The chief commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Major General Mohammad Ali Jafari on Sunday dismissed as “baseless” the allegations leveled by US President Donald Trump about the Islamic Republic’s provision of missiles to Yemeni forces.

“Trump’s claims about providing Yemen with missiles by the Islamic Republic of Iran are baseless,” Jafari said on Sunday.

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He added that Iran had no means of transferring missiles to Yemen, noting that missiles used by Yemeni forces belonged to themselves and they had only increased their range.