Tehran must stop supporting Houthis: Yemeni FM

CAIRO – 2 March 2019: After around five years of conflict with the terrorist Houthi militia, Khalid Al-Yamani, the Yemeni minister of foreign affairs, on Saturday called on Iran to abide by the principles of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and to stop supporting the Houthi militia.

In his address to the 46^th Ministerial Conference of the OIC in Abu Dhabi, Yamani urged the regime in Tehran to refrain from funding or supplying weapons to the group.

“Iran must stop destabilizing the region by supporting armed groups, and respect the principles of international law,” the minister said.

“The Houthis were stalling the implementation of the Stockholm agreement, and refused to withdraw from Hodeidah in order to open a humanitarian corridor,” Yamani added.

This has hindered the work of the United Nations, he stressed, who brokered the agreement between the warring sides in Sweden in December last year.

“The legitimate government does not recognize the attitude of failure to implement the agreements made in Sweden because failure will bring us back to the battleground in Hodeidah and will undermine the momentum created by the Stockholm agreement, and the international support to resolve the Yemeni crisis will be lost,” Al-Yamani said.

During the first Arab-European Union summit in Sharm El Sheikh, Saudi Arabia’s King Salman Bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud stressed that the Iranian regime’s support for the terrorist Houthi militias and others in the region, its aggressive practices and its blatant interference in the affairs of other countries require a united international position.

“Iran must abide by the rules of good-neighborliness and international law and put an end to its nuclear and ballistic program,” King Salman added.

King Salman who led his country’s delegation to the summit said that Saudi Arabia was keen on a political settlement of the Yemeni crisis, based on the Arab Initiative, the outcome of the Yemeni national dialogue and Security Council Resolution 2216.