National Unity Government Needed in Yemen: Iran

A senior Iranian diplomat has reaffirmed the Islamic Republic’s support for the Yemeni people, saying an inclusive national unity government should be formed in the war-ravaged Arab state.

“Based on Article 3 of Iran’s proposed plan to the United Nations Secretary General [Ban Ki-moon], a national unity government should be formed in Yemen with the participation of all sides in the country,” Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister for Arab and African Affairs Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said in a news conference held at the Rossiya Segodnya press center in Moscow on Monday.

He added that Iran’s proposed peace plan aims to bolster the collective efforts of all countries involved in the Yemeni crisis and to launch dialog among the political and religious groups in Yemen.

In a letter to the UN secretary general on April 17, Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif submitted a four-point peace plan in an effort to put an end to the bloodshed in Yemen.

The Iranian minister said 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.

Amir-Abdollahian further said that those countries which have imposed a war on Yemen, should not participate in the political settlement of the conflict there.

“These countries must be punished for the human losses and financial damage they have inflicted on the defenseless country of Yemen,” the Iranian diplomat pointed out.

Amir-Abdollahian also made a reference to his meeting with Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov earlier on Monday and said, “Tehran and Moscow will also continue their efforts in the future to resolve the Yemeni conflict politically.”

Saudi Arabia started its military aggression against Yemen on March 26 – without a UN mandate – in a bid to undermine the Houthi Ansarullah movement, which currently controls the capital Sana’a and other major provinces, and to restore power to Yemen’s fugitive former president, Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi, who is a staunch ally of Riyadh.

The UN says since March, nearly 2,000 people have been killed and 7,330 others injured due to the conflict in Yemen. However, according to Yemen’s Freedom House Foundation, the Saudi airstrikes have claimed the lives of about 4,000 Yemeni people.