Iran's foreign minister submitted a letter to the United Nations Friday, which outlines his country's plan to end the conflict in Yemen, where Houthi rebels have taken over the capital and forced the Yemeni President Hadi to flee to the Saudi Capital Riyadh.
The four-point plan, submitted by Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, calls for an immediate ceasefire; an end to all foreign military attacks; humanitarian assistance; a resumption of broad national dialogue; and "establishment of an inclusive national unity government," according to Reuters who obtained the letter.
In related news, the Saudi-based Alarabiya channel reported late Friday that the United States president Barack Obama and the Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud had spoken on the phone where “they discussed regional and international issues.”
For the past three weeks, the Saudi kingdom along with at least 10 of its regional allies have been conducting airstrikes in Yemen. The airstrikes are backed by the kingdom's western allies, including the U.S., who provides intelligence support to the operation without being militantly involved.
However, despite the U.S. administration’s public support for the airstrikes against Yemen, several U.S. generals have expressed views against the operation. Al-Jazeera America quoted several generals, who spoke to the outlet on condition of anonymity, saying that the Saudi operation was “a bad idea,” and that it was doomed to fail.
“The reason the Saudis didn’t inform us of their plans is because they knew we would have told them exactly what we think — that it was a bad idea,” a senior commander at Central Command (CENTCOM) told Aljazeera in a report published Friday.
Other military sources also told Al-Jazeera that they had urged the White House not to support the operation against the Houthis because they had been “effective against al-Qaida arm in Yemen,” one of the group's most lethal branches.
"This critical situation is escalating and the humanitarian crisis in Yemen is approaching catastrophic dimensions," Zarif's letter said.
The U.N. said about 150,000 people had been driven from their homes by three weeks of air strikes and ground fighting, with more than 750 people killed.
The U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon Thursday called for an immediate ceasefire by "all sides" in Yemen, as the humanitarian situation is rapidly worsening in the most impoverished countries in the Middle East.
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