S. Arabia Attempting to Form Anti-Iran Coalition through Yemen War

(FNA)- The Yemen invasion is only a pretext for Saudi Arabia to rally support for forming a coalition against Iran and the china of resistance in the region, a prominent regional analyst said.

"Saudi Arabia was after a coalition against Iran under the pretext of war against Yemen and the Saudi officials made a lot of attempts during their visits to Turkey, Jordan and Qatar to rally support and companionship for this war," Asheq Hossein Touri, who is also the head of Pashto-language radio in Iran, told FNA on Saturday.

He also blamed Washington and Tel Aviv for sowing discord among the Islamic countries, and said the recent Yemeni war was also waged based on the plots hatched by the US and the Zionists.

Elsewhere, Touri appreciated the Pakistani parliament's opposition to the country's partnership in Yemeni war, and said Islamabad as a big Islamic country should play the role of a mediator to end the Saudi aggression against another Muslim state.

In relevant remarks on Wednesday, Chief of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces Major General Hassan Firouzabadi expressed regret over the western and Islamic countries' silence on the Saudi crimes in Yemen, and said the aggression was staged after the West's green light.

"The silence of the western states and the international bodies on the current developments in Yemen and the destruction of the country's infrastructures has taken the world public opinion to this conclusion that the al-Saud's aggression was staged with their green light," Firouzabadi said.

He also voiced regret over the Islamic countries' silence on such crimes, and blasted certain Muslim rulers for supporting their Saudi counterparts despite the opposition of the Islamic nations.

Firouzabadi underlined that the Saudi attack against Yemen which continues brutally showed that the Saudi Wahhabis had not been able to control their internal rivals and opposition and had staged war against the defenseless Yemeni people to conceal their differences and incapability.

Also on Thursday, Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei warned the Saudi rulers of the dire consequences of continued war against the Muslim people of Yemen.

"The Saudis will definitely be struck back in this issue and their nose will be rubbed against the ground (they will be defeated)," Ayatollah Khamenei said, addressing a large number of Iranians in Tehran.

"This action (of the Saudis) is not acceptable in the region and I warn that they will certainly lose interests," he added.

Ayatollah Khamenei said that the Saudis used to show more self-restraint and sobriety in their foreign policy, but now the affairs in the Arab country are controlled by a number of inexperienced young people who want to show savagery instead of patience and self-restraint, warning that the present trend of policy in Riyadh will certainly harm the Saudi officials.

Saudi Arabia has been striking Yemen for 17 days now to restore power to fugitive president Mansour Hadi, a close ally of Riyadh. The Saudi-led aggression has so far killed at least 1,010 Yemenis, including hundreds of women and children. The war has also wounded over 2,200 people.

Hadi stepped down in January and refused to reconsider the decision despite calls by Ansarullah revolutionaries of the Houthi movement.

Despite Riyadh's claims that it is bombing the positions of the Ansarullah fighters, Saudi warplanes are flattening residential areas and civilian infrastructures.

Five Persian Gulf States -- Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain, Qatar and Kuwait -- and Egypt that are also assisted by Israel and backed by the US declared war on Yemen in a joint statement issued on March 26.

US President Barack Obama authorized the provision of logistical and intelligence support to the military operations, National Security Council Spokesperson Bernadette Meehan said late on March 25.

She added that while US forces were not taking direct military action in Yemen, Washington was establishing a Joint Planning Cell with Saudi Arabia to coordinate US military and intelligence support.