Yemen deal vital for national consensus: Iran SNSC
A landmark peace deal between the Yemeni government and Ansarullah fighters will be instrumental in the establishment of national consensus in the country, the secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) says.
Ali Shamkhani said on Tuesday that the Yemeni people are the main winner of the peace process and added that the deal is an important step toward Yemen’s progress.
He emphasized that cooperation between military forces and the government for implementing changes has raised hopes that Yemen would move to meet public demands and would prepare the grounds for improving the country’s strategic position and boosting its influential role in the region.
The SNSC secretary hailed the UN role in convincing the Yemeni government to accept popular demands and said Ansarullah’s decision to facilitate the participation of all groups in Yemen’s political future showed the movement’s “political maturity.”
He expressed hope that regional countries would help the Yemeni people achieve their revolutionary and Islamic goals.
“Fully aware of Yemen’s valuable role and position in the [Middle East] region, the Islamic Republic of Iran will stand by the Yemeni nation like in the past and will spare no efforts for expanding all-out cooperation with this country,” Shamkhani said.
On Sunday, the Yemeni government and Ansarullah fighters of the Shia Houthi movement signed a UN-brokered ceasefire after the revolutionaries seized key government buildings.
Yemeni revolutionaries have been staging demonstrations in the capital for more than a month, demanding the formation of a new government. They say the government is corrupt and marginalizes the country’s Shia community.
The Houthi movement played a key role in the popular revolution that forced former dictator Ali Abdullah Saleh to step down.
Saleh, who ruled Yemen for 33 years, stepped down in February 2012 under a US-backed power transfer deal in return for immunity, after a year of mass street demonstrations demanding his ouster.