Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghtsi said on Saturday that there is no military solution to the escalating conflict between Saudi Arabia and the Tehran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen, following mutual attacks by the two sides.
“We believe there is no military solution to the issue of Yemen, Bab al-Mandab and other regional issues,” Araghtsi said in an interview published Saturday by the state-run Iran Daily newspaper, calling for “dialogue.”
He said the situation in Yemen “cannot be attributed to Iran” and that the incidents taking place in the area of the Bab al-Mandab Strait “are rooted in old disputes and issues between Yemen, Saudi Arabia and the countries of the region”.
The resurgence of conflict between Yemen’s Houthis and Saudi Arabia — which had been largely frozen since a UN-brokered truce in 2022 — erupted this month, with Tehran-backed rebels declaring a blockade of Saudi ports and claiming attacks on tankers.
The blockade threatens Saudi Arabia’s ability to move its goods to the rest of the world, following Iran’s parallel blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, the kingdom’s only other sea route.
On Friday, a Houthi spokesman said the rebels were not blocking shipping through the Bab al-Madab Strait and that the maritime blockade “only affects the Saudi side”.
KYPE