The International Conference on Supporting the Oppressed and Resistant Yemenis has kicked off in the Iranian capital, with dozens of intellectuals and civil rights activists from 35 countries in attendance.
The event, which opened in Tehran on Thursday morning, is expected to highlight the sufferings of the Yemeni nation caused by a brutal Saudi-led war on the impoverished country.
The one-day conference will also feature speeches by Iranian officials and several representatives from resistance movements in the region.
Backed by the US and the UK, Saudi Arabia and a coalition of its vassal states unleashed the deadly military aggression against Yemen in March 2015 in an attempt to reinstall the country’s former Riyadh-allied regime.
The Saudi-led offensive, coupled with a naval blockade, has destroyed Yemen’s infrastructure and led to famine in the import-dependent state.
The military standoff has so far killed about 56,000 Yemeni people, the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project, a nonprofit conflict-research organization, said recently. According to latest calculations by Save the Children, nearly 85,000 Yemeni children may have also died of starvation.
Turning a deaf ear to international warnings, the Saudi-led military alliance has been engaged in a concerted push since June to seize Yemen’s port city of Hudaydah, a vital conduit and lifeline for aid delivery to Yemeni civilians.
Yemeni armed forces, led by the Houthi Ansarullah movement, have put of stiff resistance in the face of the Saudi-led campaign with the help of popular forces, preventing Riyadh and its allies to achieve their goals of war.
Iran stands by war-stricken Yemenis
Addressing the summit, the head of Iranian volunteer Basij forces said that Yemeni people’s resistance against the Saudi aggression will live on in history.
Brigadier-General Gholam-Hossein Gheibparvar Iran, as a nation that has itself suffered from US mischief economic blockade, and war, understands the ordeals of the Yemeni people.
Referring to the remarkable the Yemeni forces have been showing in Hudaydah, Gheibparvar said, “What is taking place in Yemen is a lesson of withstanding. All [enemies] have gathered in Hudaydah, but people have been standing against them with empty hands.”
“We have learned that where there is resistance, there is also victory,” said the military official. “The Saudi rulers have not achieved dignity, but have brought themselves eternal humiliation.”
‘US bent on destroying Muslim nations’
The second-in-command of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) also delivered a speech to the event. He said the problems in the Muslim world are rooted in the interrelated policies of the US and Britain as well as the Zionist and Al Saud regimes.
Brigadier General Hossein Salami said that Washington “believes it cannot act as the world’s superpower without political and cultural dominance on the Muslim world.”
However, faced with a wave of Islamic awakening in the world, the US failed to make that “dangerous dream” come true, the commander added.
“The Americans are bent on destroying nations. They are after splitting Islamic nations,” Salami said, stressing that Muslim nations are today at the forefront of the resistance campaign against the US.
Salami rejected long-running US and Saudi claims that Iran was sending arms to Yemeni forces.
“US President (Donald Trump) said Iran was to blame for the situation in Yemen. We, however, say ‘you and the Saudis are blocking the entry of food and medicine in Yemen. How is it that you are allowing missile in there?”
“How do you put the blame [for missile shipment to Yemen] on Iran, while you have closed all the borders? Imagine that Iran provides the Yemenis with political and spiritual support. Could that serve as a good reason for to impose a siege on them and massacre them?” asked the senior general.
Salamai also warned the European nations against selling arms to the Saudi regime, saying those arms only lead to the deaths of civilians in Yemen.
“Yemen will turn into a quagmire for the Al Saud regime and the US,” the general emphasized. “The logic of resistance is growing and be sure that the Islamic Ummah stands united.”
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