Iran downplays Saudi peace plan for Yemen conflict
Iranian authorities continue to cast doubt on the latest Saudi peace proposal for Yemen, where Tehran and Riyadh have been locking horns for more than six years in a deadly proxy war.
“The Saudi initiative for Yemen is a project to perpetuate the war, and to continue the occupation and war crimes,” tweeted Hasan Irlu, Iran's ambassador to Sanaa.
Irlu was one of a number of Iranian officials who have dismissed the peace plan unveiled by Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan March 23. The Saudi initiative urges dialogue between the Iran-backed Houthi rebels and the Yemeni government. As part of Farhan’s package, a UN-monitored ceasefire will be in place and the blockade on Yemeni ports will be lifted. The offer has been welcomed by Western nations and even Iran’s ally Russia.
However, the Iranian ambassador argued that an effective end to the Yemen war will be made possible only after a “full lifting of the siege on Yemen.” Sanctioned by the US government last December, the Iranian envoy in Sanaa is a member of the Quds Force, the overseas branch of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). Peace in Yemen, according to him, will be achieved if the Saudi government stops funding and arming “mercenaries."
The United Nations, Washington and Riyadh have all accused Tehran of funding the Houthi rebels and supplying them with missiles and rockets with which the group has hit targets well inside Saudi Arabia.
