Zarif: UN Security Council Failed to Condemn Saudi Aggression against Civilians in Yemen
Local Editor
Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohamad Javad Zarif slammed the United Nations [UN] Security Council for failing to fulfill its duties to condemn the US-led Saudi aggression on Yemen, as he said in a press conference in Iran on Monday.
In remarks during a press conference in Iran’s capital of Tehran on Monday, Zarif said, "The international community, particularly the security council, has failed miserably in performing its responsibilities under international law and under the charter of the United Nations to first of all condemn this very brutal act of aggression against civilian population in Yemen".
He expressed sorrow over the continuation of the Saudi airstrikes in Yemen, saying it is "regrettable that the Saudi aggression is going on."
"Unfortunately, the targets in most areas have been civilians", he added.
Zarif also called on the UN to ease the process of delivering humanitarian aid to the Yemeni people.
"It is also regrettable that humanitarian assistance has failed to reach the people in Yemen," he said.
"The United Nations [UN] itself needs to establish protected areas in Yemen for humanitarian access," Zarif demanded.
"People of Yemen continue to suffer and it is high time for everybody particularly the United Nations [UN] to take the lead in establishing areas that are open to the international humanitarian assistance," he said.
Furthermore, he called for the extension of a truce in Yemen.
"We call on the United Nations [UN], first of all to use every possibility that it has ... in order to extend the ceasefire" in Yemen. The five-day humanitarian "ceasefire" went into effect on May 12 and ended recently on Sunday.
He further urged the international community to step up efforts to end the crisis in Yemen, adding that a "political solution" is the only solution to resolve the ongoing conflict.
Zarif made the remarks in a press conference with visiting Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto in Tehran on Monday.
Saudi Arabia began its US-led military aggression against Yemen on March 26 - without a UN mandate - in a bid to undermine the Houthi Ansarullah movement, and to restore power to Yemen’s fugitive former President Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi, who is a close ally of Saudi Arabia.
