TEHRAN (Press TV) – Yemen’s ambassador to Iran says U.S. President Joe Biden has failed to honor his pledges to stop Washington’s support for the Saudi-led military campaign against Yemen, stressing that he only used the issue of the bloody war as a trump card to boost his chances in last year’s presidential election.
“He said he wanted an end to the Yemeni war. He said he wanted to start political talks, but he lied to voters. He continues to support sanctions against the Yemeni people. He continues to support the siege on Yemen. He has not fulfilled any of his pre-election pledges about Yemen,” Ibrahim al-Deilami told Press TV in an exclusive interview broadcast on Tuesday.
He added, “We do not count on American promises, because it was during the reign of Democrats and [President Barack] Obama that the war against the Yemeni nation began. Biden’s pledges about Yemen have not been fulfilled, because he is the most dominant partner in the aggression.”
The Yemeni ambassador noted that the United States has been fueling the war in Yemen, and, in fact, the Saudi-led military aggression against his impoverished country all started in Washington, when Adel al-Jubeir was Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the U.S. at the time.
“Saudi Arabia has been receiving logistical, intelligence, and other types of support from the United States since the first day of the invasion of Yemen. They supported a sea, land and air blockade on Yemen. Any UN Security Council resolution [against Yemen] has been backed by the United States, and Obama, in particular, backed them,” Deilami said.
He went on to say that Saudi Arabia wants Yemen to be divided and weakened, and has been purposely trying to interfere in the internal affairs of its southern neighbor over the past decades.
“Saudi Arabia seeks to dominate Yemen. We seek to preserve Yemen’s independence through our struggle. They (Saudi authorities) seek to weaken and overthrow the Yemeni government. They want to decide the president of Yemen. They even want to appoint mayors and governors themselves. Clearly, this was the case in previous administrations backed by Saudi Arabia. But in their recent attacks, they witnessed the Yemeni people’s remarkable resilience,” the Yemeni ambassador to Tehran said.
Deilami highlighted that Yemeni armed forces and fighters from allied Popular Committees have beefed up their military might and deterrence power amid the ongoing Saudi-led aggression, and are now able to produce various kinds of indigenous unmanned aerial vehicles.
Deilami also said Saudi-led coalition forces and their mercenaries are using Yemen’s strategic central province of Ma’rib as a launching pad to mount offensives against other Yemeni regions.
“Even U.S. military advisers are active there to lead the aggression. Ma’rib has abundant resources and supplies electricity to other parts of Yemen. But the enemies have turned it into a conflict zone. The enemy uses the area to carry out attacks against Sana’a and other districts. Yemeni troops have to launch retaliatory attacks against enemy forces stationed there. We have so far liberated four districts in Ma’rib, and are to establish control over the rest. We want to liberate Ma’rib from the grip of Daesh and al-Qaeda [Takfiri terrorist groups],” the Yemeni ambassador said.
Deilami said the United Nations has thus far failed to handle the Yemen crisis properly, stating that the world body considers the conflict as a struggle between Yemenis themselves. “In reality, it is an onslaught by a foreign aggressor against Yemeni people,” he said.