Baku, Azerbaijan, May 15
By Fatih Karimov - Trend:
Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister for Arab and African Affairs Hossein Amir-Abdollahian discussed sending aids to Yemeni people with Deputy Foreign Minister of Russia Michael Bogdanov, IRNA reported May 15.
According to the report, Amir-Abdollahian said that despite the United Nations attempts to help the Yemeni People, Saudi Arabia sabotages a way of establishing a cease fire and receiving humanitarian aid by the Yemeni people.
He called Saudi Arabia's announced truce a "show", saying that the situation in Yemen is a disaster.
Iran's top diplomat also negotiated with Ismail Weld al-Sheikh, new UN special envoy to Yemen via telephone and explained Iran's aid programs for Yemen.
In recent weeks Iran has attempted three times to send so called "humanitarian aids" to Yemen by airplane, but Saudi jet fighters prevented entry to Yemen airspace.
Iran then dispatched its aids with a ship, but the Foreign Ministry warned, "Iran will not permit the countries involved in the Yemen civil war to inspect its cargo ship carrying humanitarian aids to Yemen".
Before that an official with the Islamic Republic's Red Crescent Society (IRCS) based on the ship said May 12, "if someone has doubts about Iran 's humanitarian aid to Yemen, Iran welcomes their inspection".
The Iranian cargo ship carrying 2,500 metric tons of humanitarian aid including food and medicine left Iran 's southern Bandar Abbas port on May 11 to the Yemeni port of Hodeida.
The ship also carries rescue workers from the Iran 's Red Crescent Society (IRCS) as well as some 20 journalists.
The Iranian Navy's 34th fleet, which is present in the Gulf of Aden and the Strait of Bab el-Mandab, has been commissioned to protect the Islamic Republic's ship.
Earlier Saudi Arabia 's military spokesman Brigadier General Ahmed Asiri said that Saudi forces have the right to inspect the Iranian aid ship before it reaches a Yemeni port. Saudi Arabia suspects the country of providing military support to the Yemeni Shiite rebels.
Deputy Chief of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces Brigadier General Masoud Jazayeri has warned that attacking the Iranian aid ship will "ignite the flames of war" in the region.
The Saudi Arabia-led coalition has imposed an air and naval blockade on Yemen as part of its campaign to oust the Iranian-backed Shiite Houthi rebels, who have taken most of the country and forced President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi to flee to Riyadh.
Edited by CN