Iran view Saudi Arabia's use of US weapons against Yemeni civilians as a war crime

Iran has denied claims made by a senior US naval official concerning Tehran sending arms and missiles to Yemen's Ansarullah Movement.

Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Qasemi on Tuesday rejected the allegations made by the head of US Naval Forces Central Command Vice Admiral Kevin Donegan.

Donegan recently claimed that the US and partner nations had intercepted five shipments of weapon from Iran which were headed towards Yemen.

Qasemi stressed that these false claims are being made as the sales of deadly arms to Saudi Arabia continue.   

“Everyday, an uncountable number of lethal weapons, bombs and US missiles are dropped upon the defenseless and oppressed civilians in schools, hospitals, jails and homes of the innocent people of Yemen by Saudi Arabia,” noted Qasemi.

Yemenis gather amidst the rubble at a detention center hit by Saudi air strikes in Zaydiyah district of the Red Sea port city of Hudaydah, on October 30, 2016. At least 60 people, many of them inmates, were killed in the attack. (Photo by AFP)

He went on to stress that these actions are nothing short of “war crimes.”   

Qasemi also criticized Saudi Arabia's reelection as a member of the United Nations Human Rights Council, describing it as a catastrophe and a bitter tragedy.

He stressed that Riyadh’s reelection in the council is even more “regrettable” than the Saudis' atrocities upon its impoverished neighbor.      

Saudi Arabia has been launching airstrikes in Yemen since March 2015. The war was launched in an unsuccessful attempt to reinstate Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, who has resigned as Yemen’s president. The UN puts the death toll from the military aggression at over 10,000.