Yemen war aimed at undercutting Islamic Awakening: Iran minister

The Iranian interior minister has described the Saudi military aggression against Yemen as impetuous and part of a campaign by the US and its allies to undermine the Islamic Awakening in the region.

"Their last ploy was the blind military attack on the oppressed and defenseless Yemeni people,"  said Abdolreza Rahmani-Fazli in a meeting with Syrian Ambassador to Tehran Adnan Mahmoud on Thursday.

Since March 26, Saudi Arabia has been carrying out air strikes against Yemen without a UN mandate, killing people, including civilians, and inflicting heavy damage on the impoverished Arab country.  

On Friday, at least eight people are killed in fresh Saudi airstrikes against the Yemeni capital Sana’a and a village in northwestern province of Sa’ada.

Four people also died after Saudi warplanes targeted a residential area and a police headquarters in the capital Sana’a.

Four more were killed and three others injured in airstrikes on a village in Sa’ada Province.

Saudi fighter jets also carried out several airstrikes on a populated market in Razih District in the same province. Reports say the attack left a number of casualties and heavily damaged houses.

Suffering from the consequences of the Saudi military aggression for more than two months, Yemen is now facing a crisis as the Riyadh air raids have destroyed the country’s infrastructure and left thousands of Yemenis without access to food, water and basic needs.

The Saudi military campaign has so far left nearly 4,300 people dead, according to Yemeni sources. However, the UN says nearly 2,000 people have been killed and 7,330 injured due to the conflict in Yemen since March 19.

Elsewhere in his remarks, the Iranian official touched on the developments in Syria and praised the Syrian government and nation’s robust resistance against terrorist and extremist groups.

Rahmani-Fazli also lashed out at the reactionary regimes in the region, saying their support for extremist groups, including ISIL, has led to terrorism spreading in the region like "plague."

He also called on like-mined countries in the region to adopt a united approach towards the fight against terrorist groups.

The Syrian envoy, for his part, presented a report on Syria’s victories against terrorists over the past four years and called on Iran to keep supporting Damascus.

The ISIL terrorist group, with members from several Western countries, controls parts of Syria, conducting heinous crimes against different ethnic and religious communities in the Arab country.

According to the UN, over 7.2 million Syrians have been internally displaced due to the violence in the country since it started in 2011.  

AR/NN/HMV

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