Senior Cleric: Aggression on Yemen Accelerates Al Saud’s Demise

Tehran’s Provisional Friday Prayers leader Hojjatoleslam Kazzem Seddiqi strongly blasted the Saudi-led attack on the Yemeni people, and warned against the repercussions of the aggression for the Al Saud regime.

Addressing a large and fervent congregation of people on Tehran University campus on Friday, Hojjatoleslam Seddiqi said, “The aggression on Yemen was irritating, inhumane, illegal and a passive move and those who attack a country and interfere in its internal affairs are bringing their own demise closer.”

“We condemn this aggression and interfering in Yemen’s internal affairs and extend our condolences to the families of the victims and pray for the swift recovery of the wounded people,” he added.

Hojjotoleslam Seddiqi expressed the hope that the Yemeni people would achieve their objective which is independence.

Earlier today, senior parliamentary officials in Tehran said that Yemen has missiles which can destroy targets deep inside Saudi Arabia.

“Saudi Arabia is well aware that the Yemeni people and armed forces are capable of targeting the military bases of Saudi Arabia at a distance of 500 kilometers inside that country,” member of the parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Commission Mohammad Hassan Asafari told FNA.

Asafari called on the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and the UN Security Council to condemn the Saudi airstrikes on Yemen, and said, “Saudi Arabia would never dare take such grave action alone, and it has surely committed the crime after receiving a green light from the US.”

He also urged the Yemeni people to give a crushing response to the US aggressions in order to prevent recurrence of similar attacks in the future.

Saudi Arabia launched airstrikes against Yemen and killed, at least, 25 civilians early Thursday, one day after the US-backed Yemeni president fled the country.

Also, 15 more people were killed and injured in a second round of massive attacks by the Saudi Arabian fighter jets in the Northwestern Yemeni city of Sa’ada on Friday.

Yemen’s al-Massira TV reported that the Saudi air force targeted the Yemeni’s civilians who were shopping in a market.

Five Persian Gulf States — Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain, Qatar and Kuwait — backed by the US have declared war on Yemen in a joint statement issued earlier Thursday.

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

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.

Riyadh claimed that it has bombed the positions of the Ansarullah fighters and launched attacks against the Sana’a airport and the Dulaimi airbase.

Despite Riyadh’s claims that it is attacking Ansarullah positions, Saudi warplanes have flattened a number of homes near Sana’a international airport. Based on early reports, the Saudi airstrikes on Yemen have so far claimed the lives of 25 civilians with more deaths feared, Yemeni sources said.