Assault on Yemen’s Hudaydah will lead to disaster: Iran

By Mohamed Fahd

DOHA, Qatar

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Monday warned that the ongoing military assault by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on Yemen’s western Al-Hudaydah province would likely result in a “humanitarian catastrophe”.

According to Qatar’s Al-Jazeera news channel, Rouhani -- in a phone call with Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani -- said there was “no military solution” to the ongoing crisis in Yemen.

The Iranian leader reportedly went on to assert that the “adventurous policies of certain Gulf States” was “threatening the security of the entire region”.

Last week, Yemeni government forces, backed by a Saudi-led coalition (of which the UAE is a leading member), launched a wide-ranging operation to retake Al-Hudaydah -- and its seaport -- from the Houthis.

Yemen’s internationally-recognized government (currently based in the port city of Aden) and its allies accuse the Houthis of using the seaport to smuggle weapons into the country from Iran.

Impoverished Yemen has remained wracked by violence since 2014, when Shia Houthi rebels overran much of the country, including capital Sanaa.

The conflict escalated in 2015 when Saudi Arabia and its Sunni-Arab allies -- who accuse the Houthis of serving as proxies for Shia Iran -- launched a massive air campaign in Yemen aimed at rolling back Houthi gains.

The following year, UN-sponsored peace talks in Kuwait failed to end the destructive conflict.

The ongoing violence has devastated Yemen’s infrastructure, including water and sanitation systems, prompting the UN to describe the situation as “one of the worst humanitarian disasters of modern times”.