TEHRAN (Dispatches) -- Iran has said an agreement between those loyal to former president Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi and southern separatists would promote the "Saudi occupation" of Yemen.
"The Riyadh agreement between Mansour Hadi's side and the separatist council is incomplete and will not solve the Yemen crisis and its problems," Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Thursday.
"The Yemeni people will not allow foreign forces to occupy southern Yemen," it said.
Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi said the agreement "does not provide any support to solve the problems in Yemen but comes in the context of promoting the Saudi occupation directly or through its forces to the southern part of the country".
The ministry said the first step toward solving the five-year conflict in Yemen is reaching a ceasefire between the country's warring rivals.
"The next step for the solution in Yemen is to hold a Yemeni-Yemeni dialogue to reach an agreement on the political future of Yemen," it said.
On Tuesday, Hadi’s loyalists and the United Arab Emirates-backed Southern Transitional Council (STC) signed a deal to end the conflict over several southern cities, including Aden.
The agreement states that STC would share half of portfolios in a self-styled cabinet that should not exceed 24 "ministers” and ensure its participation in the consultations on the final political solution with the Houthi movement.
The deal also states that all forces that moved toward Aden, Abyan and Shabwah since the beginning of August should return to their bases and be replaced by local security forces within 15 days.
Yemen has been beset by violence and chaos since 2015, when Saudi Arabia launched a devastating air campaign aimed at eliminating Houthis and restore Mansour Hadi to power.
Since then, tens of thousands of Yemenis, including many civilians, are believed to have been killed in the conflict, while another 14 million have been cast into the throes of starvation, according to the UN.