Baku, Azerbaijan, Apr. 19
By Fatih Karimov - Trend:
The Islamic Republic welcomes UN-brokered Yemen peace talks in Kuwait, Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister for Arab-African Affairs Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said, Fars news agency reported April 19.
It is while the talks which were scheduled to begin April 18, got postponed reportedly due to delay of the Iran-backed Houthi delegation's attending of the event.
Delegations representing Shiite Houthi rebels and the party of former president Ali Abdullah Saleh were due to arrive in Kuwait ahead of the talks, but while the government delegation managed to come to Kuwait on time, the opposite side delegation remained behind in Yemen.
Amir-Abdollahian said that Tehran supports political talks and achieving a political agreement between Yemeni groups.
The last one year developments in Yemen proved that the only solution for the country is "national dialogue" and no foreign intervention, the top Iranian diplomat said.
He further expressed hope that the efforts of the UN special envoy to Yemen, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed to resolve the political crisis will lead to an outcome, acceptable by Yemeni people.
Yemen has been in turmoil since September 2014, when the rebels overran the capital Sanaa, forcing President Abd-Rabbu Mansour to flee to Saudi Arabia. Since March 2015, a Saudi-led coalition, which includes Bahrain, Qatar, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates, has been battling the rebels to restore Hadi to power.
Saudi Arabia accuses the Islamic Republic of providing military support to the Yemeni Shiite rebels, something that Tehran denies.