Iran Blames Yemen President for Crisis in Sanaa and Reiterates Support for Yemen’s Right of Self-Determination

Tuesday, 10 March 2015

Iran Blames Yemen President for Crisis in Sanaa and Reiterates Support for Yemen’s Right of Self-Determination

Iran Reiterates Support for Yemen’s Right of Self-Determination

Local Editor

Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Hussein Amir-Abdullahian

Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Hussein Amir Abdollahian stressed Monday the Islamic Republic's support to the dialogue in Yemen, stating that only the Yemeni people can decide the fate of their country, state-run Fars news agency reported.

"Tehran supports national dialog in Yemen involving all parties, because the country belongs to all Yemeni people," Amir Abdollahian said.

He further evaluated security in Yemen as "acceptable", stressing that the Yemeni people will not allow foreigners to interfere in the country’s internal affairs through being united.

The Iranian official said that Tehran welcomes "national unity, sovereignty, independence, and comprehensive national talks, in Yemen".

He also said that Iran considers "maintaining security and countering terrorism are essentials for Yemen."

"Security of Yemen is a security of Iran and the whole region as well," he said.

Last week, Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Marziyeh Afkham said Tehran will throw its weight behind any agreement in crisis-hit Yemen which is accepted and endorsed by all sides and groups.

"We support any agreement which is supported and desired by all sides," Afkham told reporters in her weekly press conference in Tehran.

She stressed Iran's opposition to foreign meddling in Yemen, and expressed the hope that problems of the crisis-hit nation would be resolved through relying on internal capacities.
Yemen has been suffering turmoil since a popular uprising that erupted in 2011 ended the autocracy of President Ali Abdullah Saleh a year later.

The powerful opposition group Ansarullah, also dubbed as Houthis, has liberated the capital Sanaa from al-Qaeda operatives last September, and worked to restore security and stability in the attack-hit areas.

The group said the former government was incapable of establishing security and had permanently failed in managing the administrative affairs of the impoverished Muslim country. It issued the Constitutional Declaration, in a bid to avoid the power vacuum in the country following the resignation of President Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi and his prime minister.