Iran condemns Saudi attack on Yemen residential areas, calls for UN probe

On Wednesday, an airstrike by the Saudi-led coalition pounding Yemen struck a two-story hotel near the capital Sana’a, killing 46 people, according to the latest tally by Lebanese al-Mayadeen television channel, PressTV reported.

The fighter jets targeted a hotel in the town of Arhab, about 35 kilometers north of Sana’a, officials said.

Iranian Foreign Ministry Bahram Qassemi called on the UN and other international bodies to investigate the killing of civilians in the attack.

“The escalation of attacks on residential buildings and civilian targets and preventing relevant international bodies and organizations from delivering aid amount to the violation of humanitarian principles and standards,” Qassemi said.

He called on the UN and the influential countries in the Yemeni conflict to double their efforts to put an immediate halt to the attacks and guarantee the safety and security of civilians, especially children and women.

Meanwhile, the spokesman for Yemen's Ansarullah movement said the attack showed the enemy was worried about the mass presence of Yemeni forces in the battlefront against the aggressors and that’s why they continue to target their gathering.

The movement called on big powers to condemn the attack and urged the international community to put the spotlight on the enemy’s acts of aggression against Yemenis.  

It also stressed that such attacks would reinforce the movement’s commitment to their values.  

Saudi Arabia has been unleashing brutal military attacks against Yemen for more than two years to undermine the Houthi Ansarullah movement and reinstall the former president, Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, a close ally of Riyadh. 

The war, which has been accompanied by a naval and aerial blockade on Yemen, has so far killed over 12,000 people and led to a humanitarian crisis in the impoverished state.