Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said on Tuesday that
Yemenis would make those attacking their country regret their actions as
a Saudi-led coalition pounded the rebel-held capital with heavy air
strikes.
“The people of Yemen will make their aggressors regret their actions,” Rouhani said in a televised speech.
His
comments came a day after the killing of ex-president Ali Abdullah
Saleh by Houthi rebels triggered a renewed Saudi-backed offensive on the
Yemeni capital Sanaa.
The commander of Iran's elite
Revolutionary Guards, Mohammad Ali Jafari, said Saleh was killed because
he had been trying to overthrow the Houthis.
Saleh had recently broken his uneasy three-year-old alliance with the Houthis and said he was open to talks with the Saudis.
“The
traitor Saudis are seeking to create insecurity in the region under
orders from the United States and working alongside Israel... We
witnessed their attempt to launch a coup against (the Houthis), which
was strangled at birth,” Jafari said, according to the Fars news agency.
Saudi
Arabia, Iran's main regional rival, has been leading a coalition
against the Houthis in a war that has cost thousands of lives and become
the world's worst humanitarian crisis according to the United Nations.
Tehran
denies direct military support for the Houthis, but a recent UN report
said a missile fired by the rebels into Saudi Arabia appeared to have
been designed and built in Iran.
In his speech, Rouhani
also condemned signs that some Muslim countries were improving ties with
Israel in order to counter Iran's growing influence.
“Some Islamic countries have shamelessly revealed their closeness to the Zionist regime,” Rouhani said.
“If
some of these countries in the previous years were engaged in
negotiations, interaction and cooperation in secret with the enemies of
Islam in the region, at least they would deny it in public. Such
relations were considered ugly, detestable, sinister and indecent.
“I have no doubt that the Muslims of the world will not let this sinister plot bear fruit,” Rouhani added.
Israel's
armed forces chief said last month that his country and Saudi Arabia
were in “total agreement” that Iran was the greatest threat to the
Middle East.
Lieutenant General Gadi Eisenkot added that
the Jewish state was “ready to exchange experience with the moderate
Arab countries and exchange intelligence information to face Iran.” The
Saudis have not publicly responded to the reports, and analysts say
there is still little chance of formal diplomatic recognition between
the two countries.
234 killed in recent clashes
Clashes in the Yemeni capital have killed at least 234
people and wounded 400 since December 1, the International Committee of
the Red Cross (ICRC) said on Tuesday.
“Now we have 400
wounded reported and 234 dead,” Sanaa-based ICRC spokeswoman Soumaya
Beltifa told AFP, in reference to fighting between Houthi rebels and
forces loyal to Ali Abdullah Saleh — who was himself killed on Monday.
Strongman
Saleh had on Saturday bypassed his Houthi allies of three years,
telling the Saudi-led military coalition in Yemen he was ready to
negotiate if the crippling siege could be lifted.
But
the move backfired. Saleh was killed as fighting raged between his
forces and the Houthis for control of the capital — a new front in the
war.
Yemen's war has left thousands dead since 2015, led
to what the United Nations now labels the world's worst humanitarian
crisis, and has deepened tensions between Middle East rivals Saudi
Arabia and Iran.
