UN must denounce terror attack in Yemen: Iran

Iran has called on the UN to denounce the terrorist attack on the residence of Tehran’s envoy to Yemen, saying the world body must take immediate action to counter such acts of violence.

Iranian Ambassador to the UN Gholam-Hossein Dehqani made the remarks in a letter to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and the president of the Security Council, Cherif Mahamat Zene, on Wednesday after a car bomb went off near the house of Hossein Niknam in the Yemeni capital, Sana’a.

Iran wants the Security Council to urgently condemn the terrorist attack and call on Yemen to bring to justice the perpetrators of such crimes, said the Iranian diplomat, adding that the 15-nation council should prevent some UN member states from funding and supporting the terrorists.

“This is not the first time that the terrorists resort to such acts against Iranian diplomats and diplomatic premises belonging to the Islamic Republic of Iran in Yemen,” Dehqani wrote.

The Wednesday blast, which took place in the diplomatic district of Hada in Sana’a, left three people dead and several others wounded. No Iranian diplomat was hurt in the incident.

A branch of the al-Qaeda militant group in Yemen has claimed responsibility for the blast.

Yemeni Foreign Minister Abdullah Mohamed al-Sayadi has condemned the bomb attack, stressing that Sana’a will seriously follow up on the issue.

Iran has summoned the Yemeni chargé d’affaires in Tehran to convey its vehement protest to his government.

In January, another staff member at the Iranian Embassy in Sana’a, Abolqasem Asadi, was gunned down by members of a terrorist group outside the Iranian ambassador’s residence in the Yemeni capital.