Yemen severs diplomatic ties with Iran: FM
Government loyalists closing in on the Red Sea city of Al-Mokha, spokesman
says
Arafat Madabish Asharq Al-Awsat Saturday, 3 Oct, 2015
http://english.aawsat.com/2015/10/article55345306/yemen-severs-diplomatic-ties-with-iran-fm

Riyadh and Aden, Asharq Al-Awsat—The Yemeni government has decided to sever
diplomatic ties with Iran over what its foreign ministry said was “a series
of violations Tehran committed inside Yemeni territory.”

“President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi has decided to sever diplomatic ties with
Iran after a series of violations Tehran committed inside Yemeni territory,
including stirring up sedition and unrest, smuggling weapons and supporting
[insurgent] groups that mounted a coup against the legitimacy,” Yemen’s
Foreign Minister Riyadh Yassin told Asharq Al-Awsat on Friday.

Hadi’s government and Arab allies accuse Iran of providing military support
to the Houthis who, along with supporters of ex-president Ali Abdullah
Saleh, last year seized large parts of the country, including Sana’a, and
forced the internationally recognized president into exile.

Saudi Arabia and nine Arab states have been bombing the Houthis in Yemen for
more than six months as part of a military campaign aimed at restoring Hadi
to power.

Yassin said the headquarters of the Iranian embassy in Sana’a, where the
Houthis are in control, “has no diplomatic immunity now,” giving mission
staff a 48-hour deadline to leave the country.

Last week, Arab coalition forces seized an Iranian fishing boat in the
Arabian Sea carrying weapons meant for the insurgent group in Yemen.

According to the FM, Iran’s foiled attempt to smuggle weapons to Yemen as
well as “its deputy foreign minister’s decision to walk out of the
Organization of the Islamic Cooperation’s (OIC) meeting that called … for
supporting the Yemeni legitimacy resolved the matter of severing diplomatic
ties with Tehran.”

Meanwhile, a government spokesman, Rajeh Badi, told Asharq Al-Awsat that the
recent military campaign that saw loyalists and Saudi-led coalition seize
the strategic Bab Al-Mandab Strait “will pave the way to the liberation of
Taiz city and all the Red Sea coastal areas” from the Houthis.

Government forces, the spokesman said, are achieving progress on the ground
and are “on their way to liberate Al-Mokha city and its strategic port west
of Taiz.”

Politically, the United Nations Human Rights Council on Friday adopted a
Saudi-proposed resolution that calls for the UN to provide Hadi’s government
with “technical assistance” to improve human rights in Yemen.