In an exclusive interview with the Yemen Times, Iran’s Chargés d’Affaires in Yemen, Murtadha Abedin, says Ansar Allah should respect journalists and media workers.
Ali Ibrahim Al-Moshki
Meeting with Murtadha Abedin, Iran’s Chargés d’Affaires to Yemen, was a unique experience.
The uniqueness of this meeting at the Iranian embassy was not because Iran has always been portrayed by the Saudi-led coalition as the usual suspect in Yemen, nor for the ongoing war of words between Tehran and Riyadh over the definition of legitimate authority in Sana’a, nor for Iran’s denial of providing arms to Ansar Allah (more commonly known as the Houthis).
The uniqueness was because, despite the public perception, Iran’s top envoy in Sana’a was critical of the style of Ansar Allah in dealing with journalists and media workers in Yemen.
Emphasizing on the important role of independent media in covering war, before starting the interview, Abedin called on the Popular Committees affiliated with the Ansar Allah movement to improve their relations with media workers, especially freelance journalists who risk their lives to report on what is happening in Yemen, even those writing against Ansar Allah.
Scores of Yemeni journalists and media workers have lost their jobs under government pressure or are currently held hostage by armed groups, including Ansar Allah, according to Reporters Without Borders.
“We stand by the people of Yemen and Ansar Allah against any aggression, but we disagree with the movement over the case of journalists, those people should be won over by dialogue and treated with dignity and respect, because the current war is on the entire nation and the national collaboration is needed to prevail in Yemen,” Abedin said.
What would be the implication of Iran’s recent nuclear deal for Yemen? Are we going to see Iran sending military advisers to Yemen, any time soon, to help Ansar Allah against the Saudi-led coalition?
Yemen is a strong country with the fighters who are defending themselves in various fronts. Yemenis do not need any support, as the country is renowned for its military stockpile and manpower, they do not need weapons. We support the Yemeni people politically and, through the media, we deliver their message to the world, to make the whole world understand a cruel and grisly war is being waged on innocent people.
Our support is exclusively within a political framework; we support Ansar Allah as a component of the Yemeni people, who all are suffering in this war. Ansar Allah is defending Yemen against those aggressors who kill children, women and the elderly.
As we are approaching the first anniversary of this all-out war on Yemen by the Saudi-led coalition, some analysts say that Iran’s nuclear deal was signed after Tehran secured another deal with Riyadh. According to this belief, Iran didn’t get officially involved in defending Yemen against the Saudi aggression because Yemen was already traded in for Syria, which means Iran has to control Iraq and Syria while Saudi Arabia can control Yemen. How would you respond to this?
The Islamic Republic of Iran does not want to settle a dispute with a country at the expense of another one. Saudi Arabia is trying to link the war on Yemen with the Syrian war. They try to settle accounts with Yemen, and we know that the Saudis have interests in this country. But those interests should not violate Yemen’s national interests.
When it comes to its foreign policy, Iran has certain principles to pursue fervently. One of those principles is to not trade in a country for another, and those who do such a thing are immoral.
Many people accuse Iran of hindering the political process in Yemen, saying that Iran does not want the war to end, because it can exhaust the Saudis’ resources, financially and militarily, which will lead to its collapse. What is your reaction?
Everyone knows how this war started, who formed a coalition of countries to launch attacks on Yemen, and who opened a battlefront in the Yemeni-Saudi border.
If the Yemenis or more specifically Ansar Allah were responsible for launching attacks on the Saudi border and opening a new front line, then people were right to hold Iran accountable for instigating Ansar Allah to attack the border and imposing a war of attrition on Saudi Arabia.
But the truth is that Saudi Arabia started this unjust war against the Yemenis. What is happening in reality is the opposite of what the Saudis wanted to do. They started the battlefront in Yemen in order to defeat Bashar Al-Assad in Syria and weaken us politically and economically to stop supporting Al-Assad in Syria. But that didn’t happen.
I should assert to everyone that Iran has no military presence in Yemen; therefore Saudi Arabia will not reach its goal. They will be defeated in Yemen, not us.
We are sorry if Saudis are exhausting their financial resources and power because of the war on Yemen and other countries, but they brought this upon themselves. What they should have done is that their resources should have been utilized against the true enemy of Islam and the Muslims, which is the Zionist entity, not for fighting their brothers in neighboring country.
The internationally-recognized government of Yemen and the KSA are still claiming that Iran is smuggling weapons to Ansar Allah and sending military advisors to Yemen to help the Houthis as well as the forces loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh. Is that true?
We did not intervene in Yemen militarily and everyone knows that. Despite those claims, there are no Iranian advisors or soldiers in Yemen. If there is any Iranian military here in Yemen they have to prove it with evidence.
Many people claim that the KSA is supporting ISIL (ISIS). On the other hand, people in the gulf countries claim that the real supporter of ISIL is Iran, because the extremist group doesn’t call for attacking Iran, while it invites people to topple the Saudi regime. How would you respond?
ISIL is a Saudi comic play, and the world knows who is supporting and funding it, ideologically, financially and sectarian-wise. They made it; Saudi Wahhabis created ISIL.
As for the group’s threats against the KSA, I have to say these are just lies for public consumption. There is no real ISIS threat against the Saudi government, because the group is killing the people in Iraq and Syria. As a fact, they only target those whom they view as enemies of the KSA or Wahhabis.
And the reason why ISIS doesn’t pose a threat against Iran, it is partly because of our national solidarity, which is important for keeping a country safe and secure. But the other factors area powerful Iranian armed forces as well as a prudent and wise administration in charge of running the country.