Russian thinks it inadmissible to accuse Iran of all Yemeni problems - Russian senior diplomat

MOSCOW, July 1. /TASS/. Russia warns the world community against accusing Iran of creating all the problems in Yemen, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said on Monday. "I would like to warn certain forces in the region against the univariate approach to any situations, including the one in Yemen, where they are seeking to link, this or that way, any problem aspect with the Iranian influence," he said. "We hail the visit to Moscow by Mr. [UN Secretary General’s Special Envoy to Yemen Martin] Griffiths for consultations (earlier in the day, he met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov - TASS)," Ryabkov noted. "We would like to commit to paper after these consultations not only good will but resolute commitment of the Russia side to promote the conflict settlement in line with the approaches Mr. Griffith id discussing both with us and with other parties in a bid to extend the basis for understanding. This task now looks quite realistic." He noted however that the situation in Yemen had not been discussed at the recent meeting between Russian and US Presidents, Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump. Armed confrontation between government forces and Houthi rebels from the Ansar Allah movement has been going on in Yemen since August 2014, reaching the most active phase in March 2015 after the Saudi-led coalition invaded the country. Along with Saudi Arabia, the coalition includes Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, Pakistan and Sudan. The conflict has entailed the most severe humanitarian crisis of today, with more than 24 million Yemenis, or about 80 percent of the country’s population, being in need of humanitarian assistance and the number of internally displaced people exceeding three million, according to the United Nations data. Read more