Iran, UN envoy stress intra-Yemeni dialog

Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for Arab and African Affairs Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed discussed the latest developments in Yemen during a phone conversation on Tuesday night.

While hailing the UN envoy’s efforts, the senior Iranian official warned against a massive humanitarian crisis in Yemen and called for an end to the ongoing military aggression against the country, highlighting the need for a political solution to the crisis.

Yemen has been under relentless airstrikes by Saudi Arabia since March 26. The military aggression is supposedly meant to undermine the Ansarullah movement and bring fugitive former Yemeni president, Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, back to power.

The Saudi aggression has reportedly claimed the lives of more than 7,100 people and injured nearly 14,000 others. The strikes have also destroyed the impoverished country’s facilities and infrastructure.

On Tuesday, the United Nations children’s agency, UNICEF, warned that over 500,000 children in Yemen, which is the poorest country in the Arab world, are facing severe life-threatening malnutrition.
"The stunting rates in Yemen are likely to go up. It means children do not reach their full height, but also that their cognitive capacities are affected, which becomes a permanent burden on the whole society," said the head of UNICEF, Anthony Lake.

The UN has, meanwhile, been pushing for peace talks between members of the Ansarullah movement and Hadi’s government in order to find a political solution to the country’s ongoing crisis.

/SR