Yemen Leader vows More Attacks on ‘Puppets’ of Iran

Calling Houthi rebels “puppets of Iran”, Yemen’s embattled president Abd-Rabbo Mansour Hadi has said Saudi-led air strikes against the fighters will continue until they surrender.

Speaking at the Arab League summit in Egypt on Saturday, Hadi – who was last month forced out of the presidential palace in the capital Sanaa by the rebels and fled to the southern city of Aden – said the rebels had “destroyed” Yemen.

“I say to the puppets of Iran, its toys and those who support it, you have destroyed Yemen with your political adolescence and by manufacturing domestic and regional crises,” Hadi said.

Iran and the Houthis deny that Tehran arms the rebel movement, though the Islamic Republic has provided humanitarian and other aid.

Officials in Iran had no immediate comment on Hadi’s remarks.

The comments came as warplanes from a coalition led by Saudi Arabia and member states of the Gulf Cooperation Council bombed Houthi positions for a third straight day, forcing the UN to evacuate its staff from Yemen.

Dozens of civilians have been killed in the assault, and ground fighting has been reported between Houthi fighters and armed men supporting Hadi in Aden.

Yemen conflict: War or words?

Saudi Arabia has said Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates – all members of the GCC – are part of the coalition, but it is not clear whether their fighter jets are also pounding Houthi positions. No mention has been made of Oman, which is also a member of the GCC.

At the summit in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt’s president Abdel Fattah el-Sisi supported the creation of a regional Arab military force and a Gulf diplomat warned that Saudi-led air strikes in Yemen could go on for months.

Regional conflict

Leaders of Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait blamed Iran for meddling in the affairs of Arab nations, with Sisi saying, without mentioning Iran by name, that it was “spreading its ailment in the body”.

“This nation, in its darkest hour, had never faced a challenge to its existence and a threat to its identity like the one it’s facing now,” Sisi said.

“This threatens our national security and [we] cannot ignore its consequences for the Arab identity.”

Hadi directly challenged Iran in his remarks and called for his supporters to rise up in peaceful protest against the Houthis.

Meanwhile, a news report on the Houthi-affiliated Al-Masirah television station referred to Hadi as a “puppet” of Saudi Arabia, where the president fled shortly after the air strikes began. He flew to Egypt for the summit from Riyadh, the Saudi capital.

Ali al-Emad, a senior official of the Houthi movement’s political arm, Ansar Allah, told the station that nothing said at the summit came as a surprise.

“We knew from day one that we are facing regimes that are allies, agents or toys of foreign powers,” he said. “Yemen will prove to the world that the weak will triumph at the end.”

Hadi also said airstrikes must not stop before the rebels return medium and heavy weapons they looted from army depots across much of the country. Saudi Arabia’s monarch, King Salman, earlier pledged that the military campaign in Yemen would not stop until security and stability are restored.

Source: Aljazeera