Iran has stepped up its rhetoric over the Saudi-led intervention against the Houthi movement in Yemen, claiming that Israel and other intelligence agencies are trying to move Islamic State “Takfiri terrorists” into Yemen.
Deputy Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian (pictured) declared on Wednesday:
The intelligence at hand all indicated that over the past two months, certain intelligence services inside and outside the region — of course with the links they had with the Zionist regime — were seeking to move Islamic State forces from Syria, Iraq, and some other parts in the region to southern Yemen… and this happened.
Amir-Abdollahian also alleged that Boko Haram and al-Shabaab fighters from Nigeria and Somalia are now in Yemen.
The Deputy Foreign Minister’s claims echo those made by Iranian officials about the Iraq crisis, with the line that the US and Israel “created” the Islamic State.
See Iran Daily, Dec 30: A Message for Iraq — “US and Israel Created Islamic State”
Iran provides political, diplomatic, and economic support for the Houthis, a Zaidi Shia movement that took control of the capital Sanaa in February and is advancing into southern Yemen, including the port city of Aden. A Saudi-led coalition began airstrikes last month to check the Houthi advance.
At the same time that it is denouncing the Saudis and other powers, Iran has put out a four-point plan for a political resolution of the conflict.
See Iran’s 4-Point Plan to Stop War in Yemen
Speaking in more diplomatic terms after a meeting with German State Secretary Markus Ederer, Amir-Abdollahian said, “We expect Germany and other European countries to take the necessary measures to stop the attacks on Yemen’s people and infrastructures and prepare the ground for the delivery of humanitarian aid to the country and the start of Yemeni-Yemeni dialogue for the formation of a national unity government.”
