Iran's Response to Saudi Allegations Regarding Houthi Missile Attacks

Iran's ambassador to the United Nations has reacted to recent allegations from the Saudi-led coalition that the missiles fired by Houthi rebels originated from Iran, stating that "the Islamic Republic has always rejected these accusations." Saudi Arabia, in an official letter to the UN Security Council, has called on the Council to act on its "responsibility" to maintain international peace and condemn the Houthi missile attacks on Saudi territory. Riyadh has requested the Security Council to hold "Iran, the supporter of the Houthis, responsible for supplying ballistic missiles" to a group that Saudi Arabia has labeled as a "non-state terrorist organization." Previously, on April 6, the spokesperson for the Saudi-led military coalition in Yemen accused Tehran of supporting Houthi missile attacks and threatened to retaliate against Iran. According to the IRNA news agency, Gholamali Khoshroo, Iran's ambassador to the UN, stated, "Saudi Arabia has imposed hunger and humanitarian disaster on the people of Yemen in this war, and to cover up these crimes, it continuously makes baseless accusations against Iran." Khoshroo added in another part of his conversation with Iranian media in New York, "This is not the first time that Saudi Arabia has resorted to correspondence against Iran to cover up its failures in Yemen." The Iranian ambassador to the UN, without providing details, stated that "the international community is well aware of this reality." These statements come at a time when the United States and several of its Western allies, alongside Saudi Arabia and its allies in the Middle East, have accused Iran of supplying weapons to the rebels. United Nations experts have visited Saudi Arabia twice, in May and July, and then in November and December 2017, to investigate the remnants of missiles fired by the Houthis at Saudi targets. They concluded that these weapons have Iranian origins and reached the Houthis after the UN Security Council sanctions began in March 2015. The investigative committee stated that the Islamic Republic of Iran has violated a clause of the resolution against sending arms to Yemen and has not shown the necessary caution in refraining from selling or transferring missiles and drones to the Houthis and supporters of Ali Abdullah Saleh. Tehran has consistently rejected these reports. One day before the Iranian ambassador's statements at the UN, the US State Department supported "Saudi Arabia's right to defend its borders against threats," and the US Department of Defense stated that Iran "undermines international efforts to end the conflicts." However, Khoshroo stated, "Iran fundamentally sees no solution other than a political solution for Yemen... and has informed the UN Secretary-General and his special representative in Yemen that it will provide any assistance it can in the political process." Over the past three years, more than 10,000 people have been killed in the Yemen conflict. Reports and estimates indicate that 22 million people in Yemen need humanitarian assistance, and the war has exacerbated the worst outbreak of cholera in modern history.