US, Israel OK'd Saudi war on Yemen: Iran defense min.

Thu Apr 16, 2015 6:11PM

Iran's Defense Minister Brigadier General Hossein Dehqan

Iran’s defense minister says the Saudi aggression against Yemen has been authorized by the United States and the Israeli regime, calling for an immediate end to the deadly assaults.

Addressing the Fourth Moscow International Security Conference on Thursday, Brigadier General Hossein Dehqan said the Saudi government unleashed deadly air raids against Yemen once it received the green light from the United States and Israel, and was promised military cooperation by some regional states.

He added that not only will the Saudi regime fail to achieve its “illegitimate” purposes in Yemen, but will also suffer a heavy defeat and precipitate its downfall, said Dehqan, adding a fate similar to that of former Iraqi dictator, Saddam Hussein, awaits Riyadh’s ruler.

The Iranian minister also lashed out at the Riyadh regime for using heavy artillery fire and incendiary bombs in its attacks against the Yemeni people, drawing a parallel between Riyadh’s crimes in Yemen to those of the Israeli regime during the military offensive against the Palestinians in Gaza last summer.

Saudi soldiers from an artillery unit fire shells towards Yemen from a post close to the Saudi-Yemeni border, on April 13, 2015. © AFP

The Iranian defense chief called for a halt in the foreign military intervention as well as the domestic conflict in Yemen, emphasizing the need for the formation of an “all-inclusive government” through intra-Yemeni dialog and free from foreign meddling.

Riyadh’s bloody war against Yemen and the kingdom’s all-out support for the Takfiri groups operating in the region cannot turn Saudi Arabia into an influential country in the region, Dehqan stressed.

The Iranian official further urged the participants in the Moscow conference to adopt transparent and firm stances against the Saudi aggression on Yemen, and help outline a peace plan for an immediate end to Riyadh’s brutal war.

Saudi Arabia’s air campaign against the Ansarullah revolutionaries of the Houthi movement started on March 26, without a United Nations mandate, in a bid to restore power to the country’s fugitive former president, Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, a staunch ally of Riyadh.

According to reports, close to 2,600 people, including women and children, have lost their lives in the attacks.

In late March, US President Barack Obama authorized the Pentagon to provide logistic and intelligence support to Saudi airstrikes in Yemen.

Reports said last week that the US has increased its intelligence support for Saudi Arabia to help Riyadh in its military aggression in Yemen. The expanded intelligence-sharing includes sensitive data that will assist the Saudis in their aggression against Houthi revolutionaries.

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