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Russia calls for end to Saudi aggression against Yemen

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov has called for an immediate cessation of the ongoing Saudi military campaign against Houthi Ansarullah revolutionaries in Yemen, and the settlement of the crisis in the Arab country through dialog. 

During a meeting with newly-appointed Saudi Ambassador to Russia Abdulrahman al-Rassi in Moscow on Friday, Bogdanov “insisted on the need to stop military actions and settle the internal conflict in Yemen exclusively by peaceful means and through a broad national dialog," Russia’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement. 

“The two diplomats exchanged viewpoints on the situation in the Middle East, particularly the developments in Yemen,” the statement read.

Earlier on Friday, the senior Russian diplomat had asked all parties to the Yemeni conflict to refrain from violence, and secure a ceasefire as soon as possible. He made the remarks in a meeting with Yemeni Charge d'affaires in Moscow Hassan al-Rai. 

Meanwhile, thousands of people staged demonstrations in different countries on Friday in protest against the Saudi onslaught on Yemen. 

Iranians shout slogans and hold placards during a demonstration against Saudi airstrikes against Yemen in the capital, Tehran, on April 3, 2015.

 

Hundreds of Iranian protesters took part in a rally in the capital, Tehran, following the Friday prayer, and chanted slogans in condemnation of Riyadh’s air attacks against the impoverished Arab country. Similar demonstrations were also held in other parts of Iran, namely Ahvaz, Ardabil, Mashhad and Tabriz.  

Protesters also took to the streets, shouted slogans and held placards during a demonstration in the Indian-administered Kashmir against the Saudi military campaign in Yemen.

Kashmiri protesters shout slogans as they hold placards during a demonstration against Saudi airstrikes against Yemen in Srinagar, India, on April 3, 2015. (© AFP)

 

In Yemen itself, thousands of Yemeni demonstrators staged a protest rally in the capital, Sana’a, against airstrikes carried out by Saudi military aircraft against Ansarullah revolutionaries. 

Saudi Arabia’s air campaign in Yemen started on March 26 in a bid to restore power to fugitive former Yemeni President, Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, a close ally of Riyadh.

The photo dated March 31, 2015 shows a Yemeni man looking at his house in ruins near Sana’a Airport, Yemen, which was destroyed by a Saudi airstrike. (© AFP)

 

Hadi stepped down in January and refused to reconsider the decision despite calls by the Houthi Ansarullah movement. 

On March 25, the embattled president fled Aden, where he had sought to set up a rival power base, to Riyadh after Ansarullah revolutionaries advanced on Aden in Yemen's south. 

The Ansarullah fighters took control of Sana’a in September 2014. The revolutionaries said the Hadi government was incapable of properly running the affairs of the country and containing the growing wave of corruption and terror. 

The United Nations says at least 519 people, including women and children, have so far lost their lives in two weeks of violence in Yemen.

Yemeni men receive treatment at the Republic Hospital in the southern Yemeni city of Aden on April 1, 2015. (© AFP)

 

UN Under-Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs Valerie Amos said in a statement on Thursday that 1,700 people have also been wounded in the Saudi strikes against the country. 

She noted that 90 children were among the victims of the violence.

MP/NN/HRB


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