Saudi Warplanes Blocks Iran Aid Flight’s landing in Yemen

Saudi Warplanes Blocks Iran Aid Flight’s landing in Yemen
Fri Apr 24, 2015 16:14:15

Saudi fighter jets have intercepted an Iranian airplane taking an airlift of humanitarian aid to Yemen, media reports say.

The Saudi fighter jets prevented the Iranian plane, which was carrying medical aid, from entering Yemeni air space.

Deputy for International Law and Humanitarian Affairs at Iran’s Red Crescent Society Mohammad Shahabbudin Mohammadi Araqi had said earlier that Saudi Arabia was not allowing humanitarian aid into Yemen.

Saudi Arabia launched its military aggression against Yemen on March 26 - without a UN mandate - in a bid to restore power to the country’s fugitive former President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, a staunch ally of Riyadh.

Late on Tuesday, Riyadh announced the end of the first phase of its unlawful military operation, which claimed the lives of more than 950 people in 27 days. However, airstrikes have continued with Saudi bombers targeting areas across the Arab country over the past two days, Daily Star reports.

Meanwhile an Iranian Foreign Ministry official has dismissed the claims of Saudi ambassador in the US Adel al-Jubeir and said problems in Yemen are caused by the countries that ruined the cYemen's infrastructures by military operations, killing or injuring thousands of people.

Condemning continued air raids on Yemen by Saudi Arabia, the Iranian official repeated request for full cessation of military operations and emphasized, 'What Yemen now needs is swift shipment of humanitarian aid and beginning of the Yemeni-Yemeni dialogue.'

He said Iran will not spare offering any kind of assistance for facilitation of talks.

Today UNICEF spokesman Christophe Boulierac told reporters in Geneva that at least 115 children have been killed and 172 maimed in the violence raging in Yemen since Saudi-led air strikes began on March 26.

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