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Iran’s aviation organization rejects Tehran-Sanaa direct flight agreement

Society Materials 1 March 2015 15:49 (UTC +04:00)
Iran’s Civil Aviation Organization has rejected the reports about initiating a direct flight to Yemen
Iran’s aviation organization rejects Tehran-Sanaa direct flight agreement

Baku, Azerbaijan, March 1

By Umid Niayesh - Trend:

Iran's Civil Aviation Organization has rejected the reports about initiating a direct flight to Yemen.

The reports about initiating the direct Iran-Yemen flights are not true, Mohammad Rahimi, head of the PR department of the Civil Aviation Organization said.

While responding to a question about an Iranian airplane which arrived in Sanaa on March 1, Rahimi said that it was an exception.

"Iranian Mahan Air company asked a permission for the flight which was agreed exceptionally," Rahimi said, the Islamic Republic's official IRIB news agency reported.

"It was not a passenger flight," the official said without unveiling further details.

It should be noted that Iran's ISNA news agency quoted an Iranian source as saying that the Islamic Republic has signed an agreement with Shiite rebels- Ansarullah- who control Yemen's capital to set up direct flights between the two countries.

The agreement was signed after a Yemeni delegation's visit to Tehran last week, the source said, adding the first flight carrying humanitarian supplies and medical assistance to Yemen has been initiated from Tehran to Sanaa on March 1.

The Ansarullah group, whose power base is in the main Shiite northern highlands, overran Sanaa unopposed in last September.

Yemeni President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi managed to escape Sanaa and house arrest at the hands of the rebels on Feb. 21 and has established a base in the southern city of Aden, from where he says he is still the country's rightful ruler.

Last December Deputy Commander of Iran's IRGC, Hussein Salami said the balance of power in the region is changed in Iran's favor.

He said that the Yemeni Ansarullah group moves in accordance with the Islamic Revolution (1979) within Iran's geopolitical space. In his similar statements, Iran's former foreign minister, Ali Akbar Velayati said mid-December that the Islamic Republic's current influence spreads from Yemen to Lebanon.

Follow the author on Twitter: @UmidNiayesh

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