Yemen’s President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi has vowed to foil Iran’s attempts to derail peace and security in Yemen through the Houthi militia, stressing that his government is committed to complying with all peace efforts to end the war.
At an annual speech on Wednesday on the occasion of the holy month of Ramadan, Hadi said that his government had offered many concessions and positively responded to peace initiatives, seeking to end the suffering of the Yemenis.
He accused Iran of inciting hatred and sectarianism in Yemen through the Houthis.
“It is time, after the world has seen how the Houthi militia dealt with the truce, that the international community understands the nature of this bloody Houthi militia. It is just tools and dolls serving Tehran’s suspicious designs,” Hadi said, referring to a recent UN call for a truce in Yemen to allow health workers to fight the spread of the coronavirus.
Hadi said that his government would not allow the Houthis and their backers in Tehran to turn Yemen into a launching ground for attacks on neighboring countries.
He expressed the country’s appreciation of the Saudi-led coalition military intervention in Yemen, which reversed Houthi gains and enabled government forces to take the upper hand on the battlefields.
“We reiterate that we will not accept that Yemen becomes a hotbed for those destructive ideas or used for undermining security of the region,” he said.
“We pledge that Yemen will not dissociate itself from the Arab skin in favor of a culture alien to our people and history.”
Hadi and his consecutive governments have long accused Iran of providing the Houthi militia with the arms, military know-how and funds that enabled them to expand militarily across Yemen.
Yemen’s president also pledged quick assistance to residents of the port city of Aden who were affected by the destructive rainstorm on Tuesday.
In Aden, a senior government official told Arab News on Thursday that the death toll from Tuesday’s downpour had reached 14 and heavy rains destroyed 66 houses and battered basic services in Yemen’s temporary capital.
“Our focus now is on dispersing financial assistance to the families who lost members, opening roads and fixing power grids and water stations,” the government official said on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to brief reporters.
He said that the government had allocated more funds to help address the destruction caused by the floods.
On Wednesday, Yemen’s army said that it had taken a defensive position since the beginning of the Saudi-led truce two weeks ago, despite Houthi breaches.
Abdu Abdullah Majili, a Yemeni army spokesperson, said that the Houthis had mounted hundreds of missile and mortar attacks on government forces and residential districts in the provinces of Al-Jawf, Marib, Taiz and Al-Baydha.
“The Iran-backed Houthi militia has carried out more than 1,428 attacks on national army positions on various battlefields and civilians since the beginning of the truce on Thursday, April 8,” Majili said in a statement carried by the official news agency.
Source » arabnews