Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian met on Sunday April 7 in Muscat with a leader of Yemen’s Houthi rebels, and reaffirmed Tehran’s support for attacks carried out by the Yemenis against ships in the Red Sea.
Amir-Abdollahian’s visit to Oman is the first stage of a “regional tour”, said the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, without specifying which other countries will be visited.
The pro-government Syrian newspaper Al-Watan reported on Sunday that Amir-Abdollahian would travel to Damascus on Monday April 8 for an official visit.
According to this daily, the repercussions of the April 1 attack attributed to Israel against the Iranian consulate in Damascus will constitute the central point of discussions, in addition to bilateral relations and the situation in Gaza.
In Muscat, the head of Iranian diplomacy spoke with Mohammed Abdel Salam, the spokesperson for the Houthi rebels, a movement supported by Tehran which has carried out dozens of attacks against ships in the Red Sea in solidarity with the Palestinians of the Gaza strip.
The minister “described the American and British attacks against Yemen as a violation of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of this country, in the context of their full support for the continuation of the crimes of the Zionist regime against the oppressed Palestinian nation and resilient,” the ministry said.
“If the Zionist regime wins this war (in Gaza), there will be nothing left of Arab and Islamic national security in the Red Sea. This is why the Yemeni (Houthi) actions against Zionist objectives in the Red Sea benefit from firm support of the Yemeni people,” said Mr. Abdel Salam quoted by the ministry.
Two new ships were targeted off the coast of Yemen, British security company Ambrey announced on Sunday.
Tehran has promised to retaliate for the destruction of the consular annex of the Iranian embassy in Damascus, which caused the death of seven members of the Revolutionary Guards, the ideological army of the Islamic Republic, including two senior officers.
“This action by the Zionist regime was a terrorist attack using American-made planes and missiles,” Mr. Amir-Abdollahian said in Oman.
This article is originally published on french.ahram.org.eg
