Yemen’s Prime Minister accuses Iran of fueling situation in his country

Yemen’s Prime Minister Ahmed Bin Dagher blamed continuous Iranian interference in the internal affairs of his country, saying that the Iranian role in Yemen performed a major role to complicate the political situation there. He added, during his meeting with Arab ambassadors in Germany, that Tehran provides Houthi rebels with modern and sophisticated weapons, which has prolonged the crisis in Yemen, made the militias refuse to deal with peaceful solutions, and continue the kidnappings, killings and arrests among Yemenis.
He accused Iran’s government of sending military experts to train 6,000 Houthi soldiers in Iran and Lebanon. He also claimed that the group has killed civilians in Yemen’s ongoing civil war. “The Yemeni government were not for the war,” said Bin Dagher, “but the Houthi militias imposed it on all Yemenis when it moved its arms from Saada to the rest of the provinces, killing people and blowing up houses”.
The Houthis, is a fundamentalist group that takes its name from religious leader Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi. Al-Houthi lead a rebellion against dictatorial former Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh. After Saleh relinquished power in Arab Spring-inspired uprisings in 2011, the Houthis, who had been engaged in an ongoing rebellion, joined with Saleh’s loyalist forces to overturn Yemen’s legitimate government. In 2014, they toppled the government of Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi.
Bin Dagher claimed that the war began much earlier than March 26 of last year, when Hadi left Yemen and thousands of Yemenis flooded the streets of the capital of Sana’a to express their support for the his government and for the Saudi Arabia-led military invention intended to oust the Houthi rebels. He said that the war began when Houthi rebels took arms against the state and their opponents, and underlined that they did so with full support by Iran.
“We are searching for a lasting peace according to the Gulf initiative and its executive mechanisms, Security Council resolution 2216 and the outputs of the national dialogue”, Bin Dagher said.
Saudi Arabia has repeatedly corroborated Mr. Hadi’s claim that Iran is supporting Houthi rebels. Recently, the U.S. said it stopped 4 Iranian shipments of arms to Yemen since April 2015 after it imposed maritime and air patrols over the country.
“Either US ships or coalition ships… intercepted four weapons shipments from Iran to Yemen,” said US Vice Admiral Kevin Donegan from an undisclosed military base. “We know they came from Iran and we know the destination.”

He said the shipments contained AK-47 assault rifles, anti-tanks missiles, sniper rifles and other “higher-end systems”. The destination of the boats was determined by analyzing their GPS systems and by speaking with crew members. The U.N. has confirmed one of the shipments as being an illegal weapons shipment, according to Donegal. Another arms seizure occurred after Iran tried to send a convoy of seven ships to Yemen in April, 2015. The ships were filled with coastal-defense cruise missiles and explosives, among other weapons.
On the other hand, local sources revealed that the Houthi militias carried out a campaign to kidnap a large number of civilians in Bejan Directorate of Shbwa Governorate. They revealed that they managed to kidnap over 48 persons from the residents of the city. The sources added that the campaigns of kidnappings carried out by the militias have been repeated in an unprecedented manner recently, without any reason or justification.
In the same context, There were fierce battles between the two sides on the eastern front, while government forces repulsed a militia attack on the area of ​​Camp Russians, in Kalaba, forced them to retreat and flee. The fighting in the eastern front left dozens dead and wounded in the ranks of the militias, while one member of the government forces was killed and three wounded.
A number of field fronts are also taking place on the western coast of the country and west of the city of Taiz, south of the country, fierce battles between the government forces supported by the Arab coalition fighters on the one hand and between Saleh and Houthi militias on the other.