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Iranian president calls for Yemen ceasefire Iran's supreme leader accuses Saudis of 'genocide' in Yemen
(about 9 hours later)
Iran’s president, Hassan Rouhani, has called for an end to air strikes in Yemen by Saudi Arabia and Arab allies as the US said it would not “stand by” as Tehran destabilised the region. Iran’s supreme leader has accused Saudi Arabia of committing genocide in Yemen and said air strikes against Houthi rebels are doomed to fail, in a sharp escalation of tensions between the two rivals over the outcome of yet another bruising conflict in the Middle East.
The televised comments followed the US secretary of state, John Kerry, and the United Arab Emirates foreign minister, Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed al-Nayahan, both accusing Iran of meddling in Yemen. In Iran’s most critical comments yet, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said the Saudi-led campaign against the Houthis was a mistake and warned that the intervention will ultimately backfire on Riyadh.
Rouhani said the Saudi-led campaign was a “mistake” and warned that it would not succeed, citing the example of Syria and Iraq. “You learned that it was wrong. You will learn, not later but soon, that you are making mistake in Yemen, too.” Tehran’s foreign ministry also summoned the Saudi envoy over claims that Iran was meddling in Yemen. Saudi Arabia and its Sunni Arab allies accuse Shia Iran of militarily backing the Houthis, who call themselves Ansar Allah (“supporters of Allah”) and belong to the Zaydi sect of Shia Islam.
He called for a ceasefire in Yemen to allow for a ceasefire and broad-based talks on resolving the crisis. “A great nation like Yemen will not submit to bombing. Come, let us all think about ending war. Let us think about a ceasefire,” he said. “Let us accept that the future of Yemen will be in the hands of the people of Yemen, not anyone else.” The Saudis are attempting to halt an advance by the Houthis and reinstate ousted president Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, who fled first to the main southern city of Aden, and then to Riyadh. Houthi fighters, who control the capital city Sana’a, have spread out across the country and are now engaged in heavy street fighting in Aden.
Saudi Arabia and a coalition that includes four other Gulf Arab states have carried out air strikes against the Iran-allied Houthi movement for the past two weeks to try to drive them back from Yemen’s southern city of Aden. Khamenei’s stark warning came as the UN secretary general said that air strikes and rebel advances in Yemen “have turned an internal political crisis into a violent conflict that risks deep and long-lasting regional repercussions”. Ban Ki-moon told reporters: “The last thing the region and our world need is more of the chaos and crimes we have seen in Libya and Syria.”
Saudi Arabia began the air strikes on 26 March in a bid to stop the advance of Shia Houthi rebels, which it and the US accuse Iran of arming. The US secretary of state, John Kerry, alluded to the Saudis’ concerns, saying Washington would not stand by as Iran wreaks havoc in the Middle East. Khamenei said the US, which is supporting the Saudi campaign, was siding with the oppressor rather than the oppressed.
Kerry reiterated the claim on Wednesday. “There have been - there are, obviously - flights coming from Iran. Every single week there are flights from Iran and we’ve traced it and know this,” he told PBS television in an interview. Relations between Iran and the US have improved over matters such as the Iranian nuclear programme and the fight against Islamic State in Iraq, but they have opposing views on other issues, such as the Syrian civil war, in which Tehran backs Bashar al-Assad.
“Iran needs to recognise that the United States is not going to stand by while the region is destabilised or while people engage in overt warfare across lines, international boundaries in other countries.” There are increasing fears in the Middle East that the fighting in Yemen might spiral out of control, with deeper Saudi involvement provoking the Iranians to follow suit, leading to a full-scale proxy war of an even more sectarian nature. Iran dispatched a destroyer and another warship to waters off Yemen on Wednesday.
Coalition countries say they are supporting the Yemeni president, Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, against an attempted coup by the Houthis, Shia fighters who have taken over large areas of Yemen. “By invading Yemen, Saudis are making a mistake, setting a bad precedent in the region,” Khamenei said. “It’s a huge crime to kill children, destroy houses and obliterate a country’s infrastructure … This is a crime and genocide which can be prosecuted internationally.”
At least 20 Houthi rebels were killed in southern Yemen on Thursday by Saudi-led coalition air strikes and an ambush by pro-government militia, army and loyalist militia sources said. “Fourteen Houthis were killed in eight dawn air raids by the coalition on their positions near Dar Saad,” a northern district of the port city of Aden, a loyalist army source told AFP. He added: “They will not win, they will suffer loss and damage … Their aggression is not acceptable and I warn that they should stop their crimes in Yemen.” Khamenei compared Saudi Arabia to Israel, Tehran’s sworn enemy, saying that their military campaign in Yemen was similar to Israel’s in Gaza.
Aden has been the target of a three-week-old assault by the Houthi forces, which already control the Yemeni capital of Sana’a. But Saudis and the US say Iran also plays a major role in Yemen, a charge Tehran vehemently denies. Speaking on US TV, Kerry said on Wednesday that Washington closely monitors Iranian movement in the Yemeni conflict. The United Arab Emirates’ foreign minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed al-Nahyan, has echoed Kerry’s sentiments.
The rebels fought street-by-street battles with local militias in the old centre of Aden on Wednesday, as the first boatloads of emergency medical aid arrived in the south Yemeni port city where aid workers say a humanitarian catastrophe looms. “There have been – there are, obviously – flights coming from Iran. Every single week there are flights from Iran and we’ve traced it and know this,” Kerry told PBS television. “Iran needs to recognise that the United States is not going to stand by while the region is destabilised or while people engage in overt warfare across lines, international boundaries, in other countries.”
Residents saw a dozen bodies strewn on the streets and said that rocket fire had damaged and destroyed a number of buildings. Mosques broadcast appeals for jihad against the Houthis. Iran’s president, Hassan Rouhani, has also called the military intervention in Yemen a mistake, but in milder terms.
The Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, warned in comments published on Thursday that Islamic world is at risk of “disintegration” due to the current conflicts in the region between Sunni and Shia Muslims. “A great nation like Yemen will not submit to bombing. Come, let us all think about ending war. Let us think about a ceasefire,” he said. “Let us accept that the future of Yemen will be in the hands of the people of Yemen, not anyone else.”
“You can have a different denomination (of Islam) but if you seek to impose one denomination on another you will break up the ummah (Islamic community),” he said. At least 643 people, including children, have died and thousands wounded since the violence erupted in Yemen last year. On Thursday alone, at least 20 Houthi rebels were killed in southern Yemen in eight dawn air raids by Saudi fighter jets. According to the UN agency for children’s rights, Unicef, about 30% of fighters in the armed groups were minors. “We are seeing children in battle, at checkpoints and unfortunately among [those] killed and injured,” Julien Harneis, Unicef’s representative in Yemen, said on Thursday.
Erdogan said all the regional crises, including Yemen, were on the agenda when he held talks on Tuesday with Rouhani and Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Khamenei. Saudi Arabia, which launched their air strikes last month, is backed by Turkey, Egypt, Qatar and the UAE, who all fear Iranian control of Yemen. Gulf Arabs often complain about Iran’s increasing influence in Iraq and Syria, though the exact extent of Iranian support for rebel forces in Yemen is unclear.
Turkey has strongly backed the military action by Sunni Muslim power Saudi Arabia against the Iran-allied rebels in Yemen. He said proposals agreed during a meeting on Monday with Saudi deputy crown prince and Interior Minister Mohammed bin Nayef had been conveyed to Iran during his visit. The Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, met Rouhani and Khamenei in Tehran last week to discuss Yemen, among other regional issues. He published an article on Thursday warning that the Islamic world is at the risk of “disintegration” due to sectarian conflicts between Sunnis and Shias in the region.
“You can have a different denomination [of Islam] but if you seek to impose one denomination on another you will break up the ummah [Islamic community],” he warned.
Adam Baron from the European Council on Foreign Relations struck a cautious note on the notion that the conflict in Yemen is an Iranian-Saudi proxy war. “Houthis are not Iranian proxies: the fact of the matter is that Houthis are motivated and deeply rooted in Yemen and their decision-making is largely, if not entirely, rooted in Yemeni local issues,” he said.
“I do not see this as a proxy war. That being said, I think what we are seeing is a regionalisation of an internal political conflict. It was sort of started by Iran but the main catalyst for the regionalisation of this is the Saudi military campaign.
“The reason why we are seeing such language from the supreme leader is that his hands – or rather the Iranian government’s hands – are pretty tied at this point. In terms of providing financial or military support for the Houthis, it’s very hard to see how they would be able to do it. Making these strong statements are almost their only option.”
Baron said Khamenei and Erdogan were speaking about a potential political solution to the Yemeni crisis on Wednesday. “I’m under the impression that that is in Tehran’s interest and Riyadh’s, as well as all Yemeni factions and regular Yemenis.”