UNITED NATIONS: Yemen’s new foreign minister vowed on Saturday that the government will “end any attempt to tear apart our homeland.”
He sharply criticized Iranian-backed Houthi rebels who control much of the country’s north and the United Arab Emirates, which supports forces seeking their own nation in the south.
Mohammed Abdullah Al-Hadrami called Iran “the main sponsor of terrorism throughout the world” and urged an end to “this Iranian-Houthi coup d’etat in Yemen.”
Houthi followers attend a gathering to receive food supplies from tribesmen in Sanaa on September 21, 2019. (REUTERS/Khaled Abdullah/File Photo)
He thanked Saudi Arabia for helping his internationally recognized government resist Houthi “militias who are dreaming of a theocracy.”
Al-Hadrami told the UN General Assembly Saturday that attacks he said were carried out by southern separatists have also “undermined the stability of our homeland.”
A Saudi-led coalition that included the UAE has been fighting the Houthis since 2015 on behalf of the internationally recognized government. The civil war has killed tens of thousands of people and sparked the world’s worst humanitarian crisis in the Arab world’s most impoverished country.
Al-Hadrami said he hopes that “we will meet next year at a time when peace will have reigned in Yemen.”
