Iran Offers to Mediate Saudi-Yemen Dispute, Says Baghaei
Baghaei also denies any Iranian role in Yemen’s military operations and says further military tensions serve no one.
ERBIL (Kurdistan24) - Iran is fully prepared to use its capabilities to help resolve disputes between Saudi Arabia and Yemen peacefully if both sides request it, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei said in a statement on Friday.
Baghaei said developments over the past 12 years had shown that foreign interference, resorting to the military option, and blockades are not solutions to Yemen’s crisis. He said the Yemeni people have endured an air and sea blockade for more than a decade, one he described as devised by external actors, particularly Britain and the US. “It is expected that regional countries and the Islamic world will make serious efforts to end this situation,” he said.
The spokesman rejected all accusations that Tehran is interfering in, or has a role in, Yemen’s military operations. “Yemen’s armed forces decide and act according to their own interests and assessments,” he said.
Baghaei added that the fundamental solution to Yemen’s crisis lies in respecting national sovereignty, protecting territorial integrity, and non-interference in internal affairs. Above all, he said, it lies in ending the air and sea blockade.
He concluded by stressing that further escalation of military tensions in the region is in the interest of no party, and that Tehran continues to seek a reduction of tensions.
Baghaei’s statement came days after a sharp escalation between Saudi Arabia and the Houthis. Saudi authorities said on Wednesday, Oct. 14, that four people were wounded and 15 homes damaged in Riyadh after debris from two intercepted Houthi cruise missiles fell on residential areas. Saudi Arabia’s Civil Defense agency said those injured included two women, a man, and a child.
A Saudi energy ministry official said an administrative building belonging to Aramco in the eastern city of Dhahran was hit on Tuesday evening, Oct. 13, causing a “limited fire” but no casualties.
Earlier on Tuesday, the Saudi-led coalition fighting the Houthis launched strikes on oil facilities in Sanaa and the western provinces of Dhamar and Saada. Coalition spokesman Turki al-Maliki said on X that the facilities were involved in supplying the Houthis’ war effort and enabling attacks that threatened Saudi Arabia, Yemen, the southern Red Sea, and regional waterways. The coalition had issued its first evacuation warning for parts of Sanaa since the conflict escalated in July. The Houthi-affiliated Al-Masirah television channel described the attack as “Saudi aggression.”
The strikes followed a series of Houthi attacks on Saudi airports and energy infrastructure. These included an attack on Riyadh’s international airport on Saturday, Oct. 10, that was reported to have killed 13 people and halted operations, the deadliest on Saudi soil since 2015. The Houthis had warned that they would target Riyadh’s international airport, an oil refinery, and an Aramco facility in Dammam if the coalition went ahead with planned attacks.
Saudi Arabia’s cabinet, chaired by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, said the kingdom would not allow its security or freedom of navigation in the Red Sea and the Bab al-Mandab Strait to be threatened. France advised its citizens to avoid the Riyadh, Jeddah, and Dammam airports. The Saudi-led coalition has supported Yemen’s internationally recognized government against the Houthis since 2015.
US President Donald Trump said he was considering joining Saudi strikes against the Houthis. In a post on Truth Social on Tuesday, he accused the group of “behaving very badly” and suggested it was acting at Iran’s direction. “I’ll be there after the elections, and I will never forget!” Trump wrote, referring to next month’s US midterm elections.
Mohammed al-Bukhaiti, a member of the Houthis’ political bureau, told Agence France-Presse (AFP) that the movement would target American interests across the region if the US became involved. He said the campaign against Saudi targets was meant to tell the crown prince that he could no longer conduct military operations against Yemen from a position of safety.
The fighting has also deepened Yemen’s humanitarian situation. The World Health Organization said on Tuesday that suspected cholera cases had tripled in three weeks, adding pressure on hospitals already treating casualties from the conflict.