24 Dec 2024
Saturday 29 October 2016 - 17:44
Story Code : 236919

Deputy FM: Security of Bab Al-Mandab Strait highly important to Iran

TEHRAN (FNA)- Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Hossein Jaberi Ansari underlined that Tehran wants establishment of security in the strategic Bab al-Mandab Strait near the Gulf of Aden.

"Security at the international Bab al-Mandab waterway is important to us and it should be respected by all sides," Jaberi Ansari said in a meeting with his Swiss counterpart Yves Rossier in Tehran on Saturday.

He also underscored the need for serious talks to resolve the crisis in Yemen by respecting the rights of all sides.

Jaberi Ansari referred to the recent missile attack against a US warship in the Red Sea, and said it was a suspicious incident as enemies of the government in Sana'a could have launched the attack to incite Washington into military intervention in Yemen.

A Pentagon spokesman claimed earlier this month that two missiles fired from Ansarullah-controlled areas targeted the USS Mason warship off the coast of Yemen on Sunday but missed the vessel and hit the water instead.

But later, the Yemeni army and popular forces categorically rejected the allegations.

"The Yemeni naval forces have had no role in targeting the US warship in the coastal waters of Yemen's Hudayda province," the Arabic-language al-Mayadeen news channel quoted a Yemeni army source as saying.

The source reiterated that the reports alleging that the Yemeni missiles targeted ships off the Yemeni coast are baseless.

He said such allegations are aimed at covering up Saudi Arabia's airstrikes on a funeral procession in Sana'a which resulted in the death and injury of hundreds of civilians.

The US claims about the attack were rejected outright after one Saudi journalist reported that it was a misfire by a Saudi navy, while a second one said it was a blue-on-blue fire by the Saudi Navy - was for the first time. Both journalists were forced by Riyadh to take down the posts from their social media pages only after a few hours.

By Fars News Agency
https://theiranproject.com/vdcjvme8huqethz.92fu.html
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