Maj. Gen. Ahmad Al-Assiri

Iran is using Arabs to kill fellow Arabs and has implanted its minions in Syria, Lebanon and Yemen to implement its destructive agendas, Saudi-lead coalition spokesperson Maj. Gen. Ahmad Al-Assiri said on Tuesday.

“What Iran is doing in Yemen is destructive to the Yemeni people and to Yemen’s future. Tehran never provided any humanitarian aid to the people who are suffering from the Houthi siege. Instead, it is providing this terrorist militia with arms to kill Yemeni citizens,” he said.

“We have credible information that Iran plays a major role in the Houthi missile attacks against the Kingdom, but the attack on Makkah and on civilians in Saudi Arabia will not go unpunished,” he said in statements to Arab News, calling on all Yemeni tribes to avoid joining the evil Houthi militias and ousted leader Ali Abdullah Saleh’s forces, which only seek to send them to their death.

“While they encourage young Yemenis to join the battleground and face death for no noble reasons, Houthi militias and Saleh’s followers live with their families in mansions and safe shelters,” he added.

Assiri stressed that Saleh is part of the problem in Yemen and was never part of the solution, adding that Saleh has been trying to negotiate with Saudi Arabia only to ensure his safety and that of his family members, hoping to secure immunity, to ensure that he will not be held accountable for crimes he committed against his own people.

“After the first truce, there were three months of negotiations in Kuwait and the Yemeni Conference Party was represented in the dialogue, which was purely a Yemeni dialogue.

After the collapse of the negotiations, Saleh threatened in an address he delivered in the aftermath of the negotiations to attack Saudi Arabia, hoping to put pressure on the Kingdom to sit at the negotiating table with him, oblivious of the fact that the Yemeni crisis could be solved by Yemeni parties, in the first place,” Assiri said.

“With his address, he only sought to score points. He was only seeking his own safety and that of his family, but this will not happen.

“He has been blacklisted by the UN, which also froze his bank accounts and those of his sons,” said Assiri.

“He will never be part of the solution nor does he have any role in the future of Yemen. He is part of the problem and the Yemeni people made their decision when they deposed him,” he added.

The 15-member UN Security Council in November imposed sanctions on Yemen, including freezing Saleh’s assets. He was forced out of power in 2012 under a Gulf-sponsored deal.

The council also blacklisted Saleh for obstructing peace in Yemen, notably for backing the Shiite Houthi rebels that have taken control over Sanaa.

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