US, UK Seeking to Cover Up Saudi Crimes in Yemen: Iran’s UN Envoy
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Iran's Ambassador to the United Nations Gholam Ali Khoshroo condemned a recent failed UK-proposed resolution against Iran at UN Security Council, noting that London and Washington are seeking to cover up Saudi Arabia’s crimes in Yemen by drafting such resolutions.
The US and the UK drafted the anti-Iranian resolution at the UN in an attempt to deflect the international community's attention away from the war crimes being committed by the Saudi regime in Yemen, Khoshroo said in a statement on Monday.
On Monday, Russia vetoed the resolution that would have pressured Iran over allegations of violating an arms embargo on Yemen.
The text, strongly supported by the United States, won 11 favorable votes at the 15-member Security Council but was blocked by Russia's veto.
China and Kazakhstan abstained, while Bolivia also voted against the measure.
Nine votes and no vetoes from the five permanent council members -- Britain, France, China, Russia and the United States -- are required to adopt resolutions at the Security Council.
After the veto, the council unanimously adopted a Russian-drafted measure that extended for one year the sanctions regime against Yemen, but that text made no mention of Iran.
The Iranian envoy further went on to reject the allegations that his country had been supplying weapons to Yemen's Ansarullah movement.
Khoshroo also reiterated Tehran's stance on Yemen, stressing that only a political solution and intra-Yemeni dialog can put an end to the country's conflict.
A group of UN experts monitoring the sanctions on Yemen reported to the Security Council in January that it had “identified missile remnants, related military equipment and military unmanned aerial vehicles that are of Iranian origin and were brought into Yemen after the imposition of the targeted arms embargo.”
The UN experts, however, said they were unable to identify the supplier.
Both Tehran and Sana’a have repeatedly rejected the allegations as a fabricated scenario and said the armed forces of Yemen have strengthened their missile power on their own.
Yemen’s defenseless people have been under massive attacks by the coalition for almost three years but Riyadh has reached none of its objectives in Yemen so far.
Since March 2015, Saudi Arabia and some of its Arab allies have been carrying out deadly airstrikes against the Houthi Ansarullah movement in an attempt to restore power to fugitive former president Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi.
Over 14,000 Yemenis, including thousands of women and children, have lost their lives in the deadly military campaign.
