Iran’s Zarif oultlines four-point peace plan for Yemen

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has put forward the details of a proposed peace plan according to which Tehran seeks to help end the ongoing conflict gripping Yemen.

During his visit to the Spanish capital, Madrid, on Tuesday, Zarif proposed a four-point plan, emphasizing the Yemeni nation’s right to decide its own future free from foreign interference.

The proposal includes hammering out a ceasefire, sending humanitarian assistance to the people affected by violence, launching an intra-Yemeni dialog, and establishing a broad-based government participated by all Yemeni factions, according to Zarif.

The top Iranian diplomat, once again, called on the Al Saud regime to stop its military campaign against Yemen, saying the deadly attacks on the Arabian Peninsula state could never provide “an answer” to the conflict.

“…All operations should end on land and from the air,” Zarif said, adding, “This issue should be resolved by the Yemenis… Iran and Saudi Arabia need to talk but we cannot talk to determine the future of Yemen.”

Prior to his visit to Spain, Zarif visited Kazakhstan’s capital, Astana, where he declared Iran’s readiness to help facilitate a political transition in Yemen.

Saudi Arabia started its military aggression against Yemen on March 26 without a UN mandate in a bid to restore power to Yemen’s former fugitive president, Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, a close ally of Riyadh.

The attacks were also meant to undermine the Houthi movement’s Ansarullah fighters, who took control of the Yemeni capital in September 2014.

The popular revolutionaries said Hadi’s government was incapable of properly running the affairs of the country and containing the growing wave of corruption and terror.

Close to 2,600 people have reportedly been killed in the Saudi aggression against Yemen so far.