Houthi attacks supported by Iran: Saudi envoy to Yemen

Anti-Houthi protesters run as pro-Houthi police troopers fire tear gas to disperse them in Yemen’s southwestern city of Taiz March 22, 2015. (Reuters)

RIYADH: Houthi attacks against the Yemeni people and Saudi Arabia are supported by Iran, the Saudi ambassador to Yemen said Wednesday.
Tehran is to blame for the deaths of Yemeni civilians as it supplies the Houthis with “qualitative weapons, ammunition and ballistic missiles,” said Mohamed Al-Jaber, the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported. This is a violation of UN Security Council Resolutions 2216 and 2231, he added.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and Hezbollah, which is listed as a terrorist organization, are training the Houthis in how to handle weapons, and assemble and launch ballistic missiles at Saudi cities, “in order to prolong the war, disrupt the political process (and) kill the Yemeni people,” Al-Jaber said.
“Everyone knows that the Yemeni people are going through difficult economic and humanitarian conditions. International reports indicate that more than a third of the Yemeni people need urgent humanitarian assistance,” he added, blaming the Houthis.
Since 2015, Saudi Arabia has provided more than $80 billion of humanitarian and development assistance to Yemen, he said.
The Kingdom is coordinating with the Arab Coalition “to provide secure corridors for the delivery of humanitarian aid and commercial shipments to all areas of Yemen,” he added. 
“These steps are aimed at ensuring the flexibility of the overall humanitarian operations to achieve the objective of delivering aid to the Yemeni people.”
The Kingdom is also coordinating with Yemen’s internationally recognized government “to meet urgently with the UN and humanitarian organizations to discuss all the details of humanitarian assistance,” Al-Jaber said, adding that Saudi Arabia and the UN are addressing their differences.