Iran calls for inclusive government in war-torn Yemen
World
Tehran called Tuesday for the formation of an inclusive government in war-ravaged Yemen.
TEHRAN (AFP) - Tehran called Tuesday for the formation of an inclusive government in war-ravaged Yemen, where pro-Iran Huthi rebels are battling the internationally-recognised government backed by a Saudi-led military coalition.
"We believe that it is necessary to form a government in which all Yemeni parties participate, to maintain the national unity and sovereignty of Yemen," Iran s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said.
The crisis in Yemen "has only a political solution", he added, according to state news agency IRNA.
Amir-Abdollahian was speaking at a memorial event for Hassan Eyrlou, Iran s late envoy to Yemen s rebel-held capital Sanaa.
Eyrlou died on Tuesday from coronavirus, days after his evacuation aboard an Iraqi plane, a rare exemption from a Saudi-led air blockade on Sanaa.
Iran s foreign ministry blamed the "slow cooperation of certain countries" in facilitating Erylou s evacuation, comments condemned by the Saudi-led coalition s spokesman Turki al-Maliki as "defamatory".
Yemen has been embroiled in a civil since 2014, and the Arab military coalition led by Riyadh intervened in 2015 to back the government, a year after the Huthis seized Sanaa.
The UN estimates the conflict will have claimed 377,000 lives by the end of the year through both direct and indirect impacts.
More than 80 percent of Yemen s population of about 30 million is dependent on humanitarian aid.
The Huthis come from the minority Zaidi Shiite sect of Islam and have their traditional stronghold in Yemen s mountainous north.
Between 2004 and 2010, they fought six wars against Yemen s then-government and battled Saudi Arabia in 2009-2010 after storming over the border.
Saudi Arabia accuses Shiite-majority Iran of providing military support to the rebels, especially missiles and rockets fired into Saudi, claims Tehran denies.
On Saturday, the Saudi coalition launched what it called a "large-scale" military operation after a rocket attack by the Huthis.
