TEHRAN -- Iran says siege and military strikes will not solve the crisis in war-torn Yemen, stressing that Tehran welcomes whatever initiative that could bring about an end to the seven-year-old Saudi war on the Arab country.
“Siege and military attacks cannot resolve the Yemen crisis, rather expanding the scope of tensions in the region,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said.
Iran has invariably backed initiatives that are based on political solutions for ending the blockade and war against Yemen and supported the courses of action that could end intervention in Yemen’s domestic affairs and enable preservation of its territorial integrity, he said.
Leading several of its allies, Saudi Arabia started the war on the Arab world’s already poorest nation in March 2015 to change the country’s ruling structure in favor of its former Riyadh-allied government.
The war has stopped short of the goal, while killing tens of thousands of Yemenis in the process and turning the entire country into the scene of the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
The invading coalition has also been enforcing an all-out blockade on Yemen that has seen it choking up the country’s lifeline port city of Hudaydah among other ports of entry to even the most basic necessities.
“The Islamic Republic has always insisted that the solution to none of the region’s crises rests in seeking recourse to warfare and violence,” Khatibzadeh said, noting that regional peace and stability could only come about through the establishment of calm and avoidance of tension.