Leader: Indifference to Crimes against Yemenis Exposing West’s True Colors

Speaking at a meeting in Tehran on Tuesday with a visiting delegation from Yemen’s Ansarullah movement, led by its Spokesman Mohammed Abdul Salam, Ayatollah Khamenei criticized the West’s indifference towards the crimes being committed in Yemen, saying the developments unfolding in the Arab country have exposed the true nature of those who claim to be advocates of human rights in the US and the West.

“American and Western statesmen perpetrate the worst excesses under a humanitarian, civic, and moral guise, and interminably claiming regard for human rights,” the Leader said.

“These criminal powers should be confronted with the power of devotion, resistance, and by reliance on [faith in] divine victory. This is the only way [to confront them],” he added.

The Leader then warned that the Saudi regime and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) — which have been leading a military campaign against Yemen — are after partitioning the fellow Arab country, calling for strong resistance in the face of the plot.

He said the Saudis, the Emiratis and their supporters, who have perpetrated great crimes in Yemen, are after “disintegrating Yemen, a plot that should be confronted decisively,” adding, however, that the scheme is doomed to failure.

Ayatollah Khamenei further emphasized the need for protecting the war-torn country’s “unity” and “territorial integrity,” saying, “Preservation of Yemen’s integrity, given the country’s various religious ideologies and ethnicities, requires Yemeni-Yemeni dialog.”

Elsewhere, the Leader congratulated the Yemeni people on their successful resistance in the face of the military aggression, asserting that the oppressed nation will undoubtedly emerge victorious.

“A good future” is awaiting the Yemeni people, the Leader noted. “With divine grace, they will form a strong government and achieve progress within the framework of that government.”

Ayatollah Khamenei cited the instance of the Islamic Republic’s resistance against foreign pressure since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, especially during the ex-Iraqi regime’s Western-backed war on Iran in 1980s.

Despite 40 years of sanctions, the Iranian nation has made important achievements in the area of defense, the Leader said.

Ayatollah Khamenei further offered condolences over the recent assassination of Ibrahim Badreddin al-Houthi, Ansarullah leader Abdul-Malik al-Houthi’s brother, which is reported to be linked to the Saudi regime.

The Houthi spokesman, for his part, praised Ayatollah Khamenei’s support for the Yemeni nation as “a blessing” and “highly encouraging”.

He equated Iran’s backing for the world’s oppressed people, specially Yemenis, with “a religious and ideological position”.

The Yemenis are confronting a war being waged by as many as 17 nations, Abdul-Salam said, pledging that the nation’s resistance and steadfastness in the face of the oppressors will last until “complete victory”.

On Sunday, Abdul Salam met with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif who stressed that Tehran is committed to its support for Yemeni-Yemeni peace talks.

Zarif renewed his country’s call for an immediate halt to 4.5 years of a bloody Riyadh-led war on the impoverished country.

The top Iranian diplomat said that the solution to Yemen’s crisis is political and the Islamic Republic backs Yemeni-Yemeni peace negotiations as well as the full implementation of a UN-brokered agreement reached in the Swedish capital city of Stockholm in 2018.

During the meeting, Zarif voiced regret for the “grave humanitarian situation” in Yemen and expressed Tehran’s preparedness to deliver relief aid to the war-inflicted country.

He also expressed sorrow over the killing of innocent Yemeni civilians and the years-long siege of the country, calling for an immediate halt to the Saudi-led aggression and removal of anti-humanitarian blockade against the war-ravaged country.

Saudi Arabia has been striking Yemen since March 2015 to restore power to fugitive president Mansour Hadi, a close ally of Riyadh. The Saudi-led aggression has so far killed more than 20,000 Yemenis, including hundreds of women and children. Despite Riyadh’s claims that it is bombing the positions of the Ansarullah fighters, Saudi bombers are flattening residential areas and civilian infrastructures.

Yemen is the world’s largest humanitarian crisis with more than 22 million people in need and is seeing a spike in needs, fueled by ongoing conflict, a collapsing economy and diminished social services and livelihoods. The blockade on Yemen has smothered humanitarian deliveries of food and medicine to the import-dependent state.

The UN has repeatedly criticized the Saudi-UAE-led military coalition’s bombing campaign and placed it on a blacklist of child rights violators last year.

A UN panel has also compiled a detailed report of civilian casualties caused by the Saudi military and its allies during their war against Yemen, saying the Riyadh-led coalition has used precision-guided munitions in its raids on civilian targets.