The Iranian Regime is once again lying about its involvement in the Yemeni war, which has caused thousands of deaths and triggered a humanitarian crisis; just days after Russia vetoed a UN Security Council resolution that would have condemned Iran for supplying the Yemeni Houthis with weapons and missiles, in violation of an arms embargo.
Bahram Qassemi, a spokesman for the Iranian Foreign Ministry, outright denied that Iran sent weapons to Yemen and accused the UK of “dishonest behaviour” for drafting the resolution.
He said: “We don’t send weapons to Yemen. Such allegations and attempts are made to project the blame on others by those who want to use the existing situation against Iran. We are witnessing a [sic] dishonest behaviour from the British government that uses the international mechanisms to defend the aggressor despite its slogans about a peaceful settlement of the Yemen crisis.”
He went on to claim that the situation in Yemen “is the result of the export of British and American arms”, but it is notable that UN experts have completed a report that found Iran was supplying military aid to the Houthis.
It’s not a coincidence that these comments came just days after General Joseph Votel, head of the US Central Command in the Middle East, told the House Armed Services Committee that Iran was trying to turn Yemen into a client state, as it did with Lebanon, but in a much shorter timeframe.
Votel said: “Iran has extended its tentacles across the region through numerous proxies, including Lebanese Hezbollah operating in multiple countries, hardline Iranian-backed Shia militia groups (SMGs) in Iraq and Syria, and Iranian support has enabled the Houthis.”
This is not surprising when you listen to the recent comments of Ali Akbar Velayati, a foreign policy adviser to Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei.
Velayati said: “Our presence in the region is inevitable. We will continue this process, so as to become the most decisive force in the region. We are present in Iraq, Syria, Palestine, and Lebanon…We help Yemen because it is our human duty to do so. Saudi Arabia must know that this ongoing process will make Yemen its Vietnam.”
In this, Velayati is admitting that Iran deceives its enemies, when others claim that they are not building a coalition of Shiite forces in Syria and Iraq, and that Iran’s goal in aiding the Houthis is not aiding Yemen but hurting Saudi Arabia.
Iran is gaining military dominance in Yemen in the same way that it did in Iraq, which makes it easy to see why the Houthis blocked a 2016 peace deal and why Iran is interfering in Iraq’s upcoming elections.
Source » ncr-iran