Yemen war will backfire on Saudi Arabia: Iran MPs

Iranian lawmakers have unanimously denounced Saudi Arabia’s military aggression against Yemen, warning that the adverse consequences of the ongoing war on Sana’a will undoubtedly backfire on Riyadh.

“The Al Saud regime should know that the fire rekindled [in Yemen] will engulf it and will impose heavy costs on the Muslim world,” a group of 262 legislators said in a statement on Sunday.

“The formation of a fabricated coalition will further complicate problems in the Muslim world and the [Middle East] region,” the statement read, adding that support of the US, the Israeli regime and their allies for Saudi Arabia’s blatant violation of an independent nation’s sovereignty runs counter to international conventions.

Saudi Arabia’s attack on Yemen and the killing of Muslim and innocent people in the country proved that Al Saudi is serving the interests of enemies of Islam instead of reinforcing unity and dignity among Muslims, it pointed out.

The Iranian parliamentarians expressed their support for the popular uprising of the Yemeni nation and strongly condemned foreign intervention in the impoverished country, saying the Muslim Yemeni people would undoubtedly resist aggressors with full force.

The statement came on the same day that Iran’s Parliament (Majlis) Speaker Ali Larijani said Tehran supports negotiations among representatives from all parties involved in the Yemeni crisis and described national dialog as the only way to end the conflict.

“Such military aggression, irrespective of its objectives, is a blow to the Muslim Ummah and benefits the Zionist regime [of Israel] and major powers. The aggressive countries must explain why they are using their facilities to deal a blow to a Muslim state,” the top Iranian legislator said in a telephone conversation with Speaker of Pakistan’s National Assembly Sardar Ayaz Sadiq on Sunday.

Saudi Arabia’s air campaign against Yemen started on March 26 without a UN mandate in a bid to restore power to the country’s fugitive president, Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, a close ally of Riyadh.

The photo shows the bodies of two victims of an airstrike by the Saudi-led coalition that hit the previous day the village of Bani Matar, West of Sana’a, on April 4, 2015. © AFP
However, Ansarullah fighters say Hadi lost his legitimacy as president of Yemen after he in February fled the capital to Aden, where he sought to set up a rival base. Hadi stepped down in January and refused to reconsider the decision despite calls by Houthi revolutionaries.

Houthi fighters continue advancing southward, while they have also stepped up fighting against al-Qaeda terrorists and secured many areas from the militants.