Iran denies accusation of encouraging Yemenis to attack Saudi Arabia
Iran on Friday denied having anything to do with attacks by Yemen’s Ansarullah movement, a day after Saudi Arabia accused it of having encouraged the group’s recent escalation against the kingdom.
“The Islamic Republic of Iran rejects any claim that Iran has played a role in Yemeni operations,” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said in a statement.
“Yemen’s armed forces act according to their own interests and assessments, and such claims are not credible to those familiar with relations between Iran and its friends. Nevertheless, Iran does not consider an escalation of tensions to be in the interests of any party,” he added.
Baqaei however reiterated an offer to mediate between the two sides, saying Tehran “has always been ready to use its good offices to help end the hostilities".
The Iranian official stressed that resolving the Yemen issue requires respect for the country’s national sovereignty and territorial integrity, an end to all interference in its internal affairs and, most importantly, the lifting of the air and sea blockade.
His remarks came after Saudi Foreign Ministry’s official Rayed Krimly claimed that Iran had “encouraged” the escalation in Yemen.
He also accused Tehran of continuing to ‘‘arm, train and support’’ the movement.
Saudi Arabia has supported Yemen’s government in south militarily against Ansarullah since 2015 in a long-running civil war that has created a humanitarian crisis.
The Ansarullah movement has repeatedly struck Saudi targets including Red Sea tankers, oil facilities and Riyadh’s international airport, where 13 people were killed in a single attack last week.
The Ansarullah’s attacks have proliferated since the group launched a lightning offensive in Yemen in September, seizing strategic territory along the Red Sea coast overlooking a major chokepoint for global shipping, which was in control of Saudi-backed forces.
The pressure on Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest oil exporter, comes as global energy markets were already rattled by Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz at the outset of the wider Middle East war in February.
Yemeni Saudi-backed forces have launched a counteroffensive with Saudi air support to retake areas seized by Ansarullah, but have so far failed to reverse their gains.
On Friday, the local security office in Aden, the government’s interim capital, said two missiles landed within the perimeter of the city’s airport, “in the second incident of its kind in less than a week", adding that no one was killed.