The head of Yemen’s Supreme Political Council says the country’s maritime operations in the Red Sea against Israeli-affiliated commercial vessels will cease only if the Tel Aviv regime’s crimes in Gaza stop.
Addressing a ceremony in the Yemeni capital city of Sana’a on the occasion of the ninth anniversary of the Saudi-led war on Yemen, Mehdi al-Mashat said that Yemenis have never sought a conflict and always advocated a peace process.
“We assure that Yemen is not a danger to any party, and anyone who has an issue with the Sana’a government can solve it through dialogue,” he said.
“The only way to stop Yemen’s operations is to stop genocide and violence against the oppressed people of Gaza,” he added.
More than 170 days into the Israeli war on the besieged coastal Palestinian territory, killing at least 32,300 Palestinians, famine looms over much of the blockaded territory as the regime continues to block food and basic supplies from entering the Strip using starvation as a weapon of war.
Israel’s onslaught on Gaza and indiscriminate attacks on civilian and humanitarian assets have rendered the territory “practically uninhabitable,” according to the UN, creating an environment of mass displacement and deprivation.
In response to the war on Gaza, Yemenis have declared their open support for Palestinians forcing Israeli-affiliated shipping and oil companies to suspend transit through one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes in the Red Sea.
The Yemeni Armed Forces have repeatedly said they won’t stop retaliatory strikes until the war on Gaza stops.
Mashat on Monday called upon leaders of member states of the Saudi-led coalition to make efforts to end their vicious aggression against Yemen and establish a durable peace following marathon negotiations and extensive discussions in Oman.
He expressed hope that Arab leaders could eventually distance themselves from warmongers, especially the United States and Britain that are openly trying to block peace efforts in Yemen and the West Asia region.
In March 2015, Saudi Arabia and its allies launched the war on Yemen to restore power to the impoverished country’s Western- and Riyadh-allied government.
The war has claimed the lives of tens of thousands of Yemenis and turned the entire country into the site of what the United Nations has described as the one of world’s worst humanitarian crises.
