NEW YORK — Yemen plans to complain to the UN Security Council over what it says are Iran’s weapon transfers to Houthi allies fighting the internationally recognized Yemeni government, the foreign minister said on Saturday.
In an interview with Reuters, Abdel-Malek Al-Mekhlafi also said he hoped a 72-hour humanitarian ceasefire would take effect “early next week.”
“There are new weapons coming from Iran,” Mekhlafi said in New York where he was attending the annual UN gathering of world leaders.
“It is impossible to hide that weapons-smuggling is still taking place from Iran. Some of these weapons have been found on the Saudi-Yemeni border and they are Iranian weapons,” he said.
Mekhlafi said his government was in the process of filing a complaint to the Security Council, with evidence including documents and pictures.
UN-sponsored talks to try to end 18 months of fighting that has killed at least 10,000 people collapsed last month.
The foreign minister said President Abdrabbu Mansour Hadi had met with US and UN officials this week and had agreed in principle to a 72-hour ceasefire.
“He (Hadi) asked that the ceasefire be taken advantage of by lifting the unjust siege of Taiz and for food to enter simultaneously,” Mekhlafi said, referring to a city in the country’s highlands. The government was waiting for the UN envoy to speak with the Houthi side to secure those guarantees, he added.
Mekhlafi defended the Yemeni president’s move to appoint a new central bank governor and move the bank’s headquarters to Aden, where Hadi’s government is based.
“This was a necessary step ... Even our allies, and the international institutions, have reached the conclusion that it was the necessary last step to save the Yemeni economy,” he said. — Reuters
