Iran not supplying arms to Yemeni fighters: Spokeaman

EghtesadOnline: Iran has provided Yemeni fighters with no weapons, says Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Qasemi, rejecting as irrelevant allegations against the Islamic Republic’s interference in the war-torn country.

News ID: ۷۳۹۶۵۷

06 February 2017

“Iran has no engagement in Yemen and it has never supplied the Yemeni fighters with weapons” Qasemi said in a press conference on Monday, according to IRNA.

“Iran seriously and definitely rejects any kinds of allegations leveled against it trying to relate the Islamic Republic with the Yemeni Issues,” Qasemi said.

The Foreign Ministry spokesman also said that those who are familiar with the history of Yemen, especially in the days before the disintegration of the former Soviet Union, know very well that the country used to be divided into two parts.

Part of Yemen used to be under the Soviet rule and Moscow used to supply the country with advanced weapons and military hardware, Qasemi said.

“The Yemeni people and fighters still have access to these weapons,” he said.

According to Qasemi, the allegations against Iran and the claims that the Islamic Republic is funneling weapons for Houthis in Yemen is a new pretext invented by some regional countries and the US new administration to promote Iranophobia.

“This is not anything new,” he said.

“It is a joint strategy followed by regional and trans-regional powers to face Iran,” Qasemi said.

“Yemen is the victim of an imprudent war imposed against it by the government of Saudi Arabia,” he said.

Many have died as a result of the war, and Yemen now has been reduced to ashes, with its people living under very dire conditions, he added.