Senior Iranian MP: UNSC’s Behavior Persuading Saudi Arabia to Continue Attack on Yemen

A senior Iranian legislator lashed out at the UN Security Council for keeping mum on the Saudi-led aggression on Yemen, and said the UNSC’s indifference persuades the Al Saud regime to continue its airstrikes against Sana’a.

“The UN and the Security Council who claim to be able to administer the world with their veto rights should be questioned because they are not sensitive towards Yemen, and rather persuade Saudi Arabia and some other countries to attack the nation,” member of the parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Commission Esmayeel Kosari told FNA on Saturday.

He regretted that the US and the European countries try to prevent the Yemeni nation’s success by throwing their weight behind the Saudi invasion of Yemen, and said, “They should know that the Al Saud regime has done a great risk because the regional nations now feel strong animosity towards the Al Saud regime,” Kosari said.

On Friday senior parliamentary officials in Tehran urged members of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) to condemn the Saudi regime’s aggression on Yemen.

“We expect the NAM countries to condemn this aggression,” Tehran MP Zohreh Tabibzadeh told FNA.

She reiterated that the Yemeni people are ready to defend their country and will give a crushing response to the Saudi aggression, but the world community is also needed to condemn such a violation of the international and humanitarian laws.

“The Yemeni people and fighters know street war and defense pretty well and they are not an easy morsel for Saudi Arabia to swallow,” Tabibzadeh said.

Saudi Arabia launched airstrikes against Yemen and killed, at least, 25 civilians early Thursday, one day after the US-backed Yemeni president fled the country.

Also, 15 more people were killed and injured in a second round of massive attacks by the Saudi Arabian fighter jets in the Northwestern Yemeni city of Sa’ada on Friday.

Yemen’s al-Massira TV reported that the Saudi air force targeted civilians who were shopping in a market.

On Thursday, the Iranian foreign ministry deplored the airstrike, calling it a “dangerous” move in violation of international obligations for respecting countries’ national sovereignty.
“Resorting to military acts against Yemen which is entangled in an internal crisis and fighting terrorism will further complicate the situation, spread the range of crisis and destroy opportunities to settle the internal differences in Yemen peacefully,” Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Marziyeh Afkham said.

She underlined the necessity for implementing national agreements among the Yemeni groups and parties as soon as possible, and called for an immediate halt to air strikes and military acts against the Yemeni people and the country.

Afkham expressed concern about the spread of extremism and strengthening terrorism, and said, “This aggression will merely result in the spread of terrorism and extremism and will spread insecurity to the entire region.”

Five Persian Gulf States — Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain, Qatar and Kuwait — backed by the US have declared war on Yemen in a joint statement issued earlier Thursday.

US President Barack Obama authorized the provision of logistical and intelligence support to the military operations, National Security Council Spokesperson Bernadette Meehan said late Wednesday night.

She added that while US forces were not taking direct military action in Yemen, Washington was establishing a Joint Planning Cell with Saudi Arabia to coordinate US military and intelligence support.

Riyadh claimed that it has bombed the positions of the Ansarullah fighters and launched attacks against the Sana’a airport and the Dulaimi airbase.

Despite Riyadh’s claims that it is attacking Ansarullah positions, Saudi warplanes have flattened a number of homes near Sana’a international airport.