Skip to main content
Saudi Puts Blockade on Yemen in Response to Attack by Iran-Backed HouthisTerrorism 10 November 2017

Iran Focus
London, 10 Nov - The Saudi-led military coalition has tightened its blockade in Yemen after Iran-backed Houthi rebels fired a ballistic missile at the Saudi capital last weekend.

As a result of the blockade, which was announced on Monday, many fuel stations hiked their petrol prices by as much as 50% causing the Houthis to close all stations in the capital, and aid groups warned that the humanitarian crisis will be exacerbated.

George Khoury, the head of the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Yemen, said that aid agencies were not given prior notice of the blockade and instead saw it in the press.

While U.N. humanitarian chief, Mark Lowcock, warned that if the blockade continued, Yemen would face a large-scale famine and called for aid workers to be allowed into the country at a meeting of the U.N. Security Council.

The attack

On Saturday, November 4, Houthi rebels launched an Iranian built missile at Riyadh International Airport. The missile was shot down by Saudi defence systems and no one was hurt but it’s the closest a ballistic missile has gotten to the capital.

Saudi Arabia said that the Iranian Regime is not just supporting the Houthis but actively arming them with advanced weapons, including ballistic missiles; a position also taken by the USA and France.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman said that the ballistic missile attack constituted an act of "direct military aggression by the Iranian regime".

The White House issued a statement condemning Iran’s actions as part of an attempt to destabilise the region and lending support to Saudi Arabia and its allies in the Middle East against Iran’s violations of international law and UN resolutions. They also raised the matter before the UN on November 7.

On November 9, French President Emmanuel Macron said: "The missile which was intercepted by Saudi Arabia launched from Yemen, which obviously is an Iranian missile, shows precisely the strength of their [program me]."

A Saudi-led coalition has been fighting the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen since March 2015. The Houthis control northern Yemen, including the capital of Sanaa, while the internationally recognized government controls southern Yemen from its base in Saudi Arabia.

On Wednesday, the office of Yemeni President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi has denounced reports that Saudi Arabia is preventing him from returning to Yemen due to a conflict with the United Arab Emirates as "lies” designed to attack Saudi Arabia in its legitimate fight against the Iranian Regime’s interference in Yemen and across the Middle East.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The MEK's Religious BeliefsJubin Katiraie

The MEK's Religious BeliefsJubin Katiraie Blog 18 February 2018 The People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) is a political group dedicated to bringing freedom and democracy to Iran. They derive their political beliefs from a modern and tolerant version of Islam that is fully compatible with modern society – the exact opposite of the ruling mullahs’ Sharia Law, which is intolerant, extremist, genocidal, non-democratic, and misogynist – and the MEK believe that their interpretation is the true meaning of Islam. In 1982, MEK leader Massoud Rajavi, said: “The Islam we want is nationalistic, democratic, progressive, and not opposed to science or civilization. We believe there is no contradiction between modern science and true Islam, and we believe that in Islam there must be no compulsion or dictatorship.” This combination of tolerant religion and politics means that the MEK enjoys broad public support amongst the Iranian people and people all over the world, but it is...

European MP Ties to Islamic Republic of Iran Saturday

European MP Ties to Islamic Republic of Iran Saturday, 03 March 2018 08:29 Ana Gomes, MEP and Josef Weidenholzer By David N. Neumann After lashing out against opponents of the Islamic Republic of Iran in several parliamentary debates, a member of the European Parliament has admitted to doing the bidding of Tehran. In a meeting in Brussels, Portuguese socialist MEP Ana Gomes acknowledged that she had been instructed in Tehran to bash the Iranian opposition. “I met with relatives of the victims of a terrorist organisation called MEK,” she said on her visit to Tehran in a meeting of the European Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee on 22 February 2018. After making a number of allegations about the Iranian opposition movement PMOI or MEK, she added: “We cannot continue to allow some members of this parliament, possibly out of naiveté, to continue to abet some of the members of this organization.” Her claims are particularly surprising, given that competent European and American court...

French FM Visits Iran to Talk Ballistic Missiles and Syria

French FM Visits Iran to Talk Ballistic Missiles and Syria05 March 2018 Iran Focus London, 05 Mar - The French foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, has arrived in Iran to talk with the country's president Hassan Rouhani, Ali Shamkhani, the secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council and the Iranian foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, according to Iranian state TV. Talks are expected to focus on Iran’s involvement in the Syrian Civil war and Iran's ballistic missile program, which both Le Drian and French President Emmanuel Macron have criticized Iran's missile program in recent weeks, with Le Drian stating that Iran's ballistic missile capacity worried France “enormously". In response to Iranian claims that their ballistic missile program is peaceful, Le Drian said: "Having such tools is not uniquely defensive, given the distance they can reach." The French Foreign Ministry even issued a statement ahead of the trip, which said Le Drian ...