Iran’s deputy FM visits Saudi Arabia to talk Yemen crisis

Baku, Azerbaijan, June 15

By Umid Niayesh - Trend:

Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister for Arab and African Affairs, Hossein Amir Abdollahian arrived in Saudi Arabia on June 15 to take part in a meeting on the Yemen crisis.

Amir Abdollahian will participate in the Islamic Cooperation Organization's extra-ordinary foreign ministers' meeting, which will be held in Jeddah, Iran 's Fars news agency reported June 15.

Also, the opposing sides in the Yemen civil war are scheduled to take part in UN-backed peace talks on June 15 in Geneva, Switzerland on possible resolution to conflict.

Iran is already clashing with Saudi Arabia over a number of issues, especially their support for opposing sides in the Syrian and Yemen civil war. Saudi Arabia and its allies accuse the Islamic Republic of destabilizing the region, something that Tehran denies.

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

At that time, an Iranian conservative MP, Ali Reza Zakani boasted that Sanaa was now the fourth Arab capital in Iranian hands - after Beirut (through Hezbollah), Damascus (through President Bashar al-Assad) and Baghdad (through Iraq 's democratically elected Shia-led government).

An international coalition led by Saudi Arabia launched air strikes on the Houthi militia forces in Yemen March 25, in a move to support President Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi who was forced to flee to Riyadh.

Edited by CN

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