PHOTO: The Abs Hospital in northern Yemen, hit by a Saudi airstrike on Monday (Reuters)


Iran illustrated its different approaches to Yemen’s and Syria’s conflicts on Monday, criticizing a deadly Saudi airstrike on a Yemeni hospital but maintaining silence on Russian-regime attacks on Syrian medical facilities.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry Bahram Qassemi said on Monday that Saudi Arabia knows no limits in its killing of women and children in Yemen, declaring that the Saudi airstrike killed at least 25 people and injured 20 in the hospital in Hajjah Province.

Médecins Sans Frontières‎, which supports the Abs Hospital, said at least 11 people — one staff member and 10 patients — were dead and 19 injured. It emphasized, “The location of the hospital was well known, and the hospital’s GPS coordinates were repeatedly shared with all parties to the conflict, including the Saudi-led coalition.””

The hospital director, Ibrahim Aram, said three Yemeni staff were among the dead. Three foreign doctors at the hospital were wounded, and three other personnel had limbs amputated.

MSF said the attack was the fourth on one of its Yemen facilities in less than 12 months.

Iran’s Qassemi declared that “the terrorist-sponsoring and warmongering regime of Saud knows no boundaries and limits to killing children, women, the injured and civilians”.

However, the Foreign Ministry spokesman offered no comment on the latest attacks by the Russian and Syrian militaries on hospitals, clinics, civil defense centers, and blood banks, including facilities supported by MSF and the Syrian American Medical Society.

Propping up the Assad regime, the Russian and Syrian air forces have carried out hundreds of raids, including 43 in July. Last week, a hospital was destroyed in Idlib Province, killing nine patients and four staff, and other clinics were struck across northwest Syria.

See Syria Daily, August 12: The Russian-Regime War on the Hospitals

Iran has provided essential political and military support for Syria’s President Assad since the uprising began in 2011, and Tehran has escalated its involvement — including more Iranian troops and Iranian-led foreign militia — since Russia’s aerial intervention began last September.