Tehran, Iran, Dec. 5
By Mehdi Sepahvand, Fatih Karimov – Trend:
Iran’s Foreign Ministry has severely criticized the UK over rejecting the claims on Saudi Arabia’s violating human rights in Yemen.
The UK Defense Office’s claim of being unsure if Saudi Arabia has violated human rights in Yemen is “a joke and inconsequential,” Bahram Qasemi, Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman, said during a press conference Dec. 5 in Tehran while responding to Trend correspondent’s question on the issue.
The records of homelessness, hunger, injustice and poverty in Yemen are known to all, Qasemi added.
The UK Foreign Office has recently concluded there is no clear risk of serious Saudi breaches of international humanitarian law in Yemen, even though it admits UK defense personnel cannot “form a complete understanding” of the Saudi-led coalition’s attitudes to such laws because they “do not have access to all the information required.”
The UK government response centers on its statement that it takes all allegations of violations of humanitarian law seriously, and regularly makes representations to the Saudi authorities, but has not concluded any such breaches have occurred in Yemen by Saudi Arabia to warrant the withdrawal of arms exports licenses.
Air strikes by the Saudi-led coalition have been responsible for 60 percent of at least 2,000 civilians killed in the conflict over a yearlong span starting on July 1, 2015, according to the United Nations.