‘Iran has no role to play in Yemen’
Saudi Arabia denies request for cease-fire
WASHINGTON – Saudi Arabia’s envoy in Washington rejected Iranian calls for a cease-fire in Yemen, saying Tehran should have no role in political negotiations in the war-torn country.
Saudi-led airstrikes will continue in Yemen until rebel Houthi militants disarm and agree to restore exiled President Abed Raboo Mansour Hadi, Adel Jubeir, the Saudi ambassador to the United States, told reporters Wednesday.
“Iran has no role to play in Yemen,” Jubeir said. “Iran, last time I checked, does not have a border with Yemen.”
The Sunni Muslim kingdom of Saudi Arabia, which is Shiite Iran’s regional rival, shares a rugged 1,000-mile-long land border with Yemen.
On Tuesday, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif had proposed a cease-fire to be followed by Iranian-backed negotiations to form a new government in Sanaa, the capital.
Fighters aligned with the Houthis, a Shiite minority group from northern Yemen, seized control of Sanaa last fall. They now control much of the country’s west and north, and in recent weeks have pushed south to Aden, the country’s major seaport, forcing the U.S.-backed president to flee.
The Obama administration has said Tehran has provided weapons, training and military advisers to the Houthis, although they are not considered under Iranian control.
A coalition of Sunni Arab nations led by Saudi Arabia, and supported by the United States, entered the war on March 25 with airstrikes and a naval blockade aimed at reversing the Houthis’ gains and restoring Hadi to power.