Yemen demands Iran stay out of its affairs

Yemen has called for Iran to stay out of its domestic affairs and has accused it of funding Houthi militias and forces that are loyal to ousted President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

Speaking at the 43rd OIC conference in the Uzbek capital, Tashkent, Yemen’s ambassador to the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), Zain Qu’aiti, called on Iran to provide Yemen with “medicine instead of gunpowder” and called on OIC member states to support the “legitimate” government of Yemen’s current President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi.

He also pressed on the fact that the current Yemeni government is keen to end the war and recognises the legitimacy of UN Security Council resolution 2216, which demands for an immediate halt of violence in Yemen, for the Houthi and Saleh militias to withdraw from all occupied territories and reiterates support for the Hadi government.

Yemen has been locked in a bitter battle between Shia Houthi fighters allied with forces loyal to ousted President Ali Abdullah Saleh and government forces led by President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, along with local tribes and resistance forces backed by the Saudi-led coalition’s airstrikes.