European Hormuz mission talks seen
Tehran voices support for Houthis
BERLIN, Aug 14, (RTRS): German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Wednesday she believed the idea of a European naval mission in the Strait of Hormuz would be discussed again at informal meetings of European foreign and defence ministers in Finland later this month.
“I think the question of a European mission will be discussed there again because this discussion has not yet taken place everywhere and so I believe that the Finnish presidency will play a coordinating role on that,” Merkel told a news conference after meeting visiting Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda.
EU foreign ministers and defence ministers are due to hold informal meetings in Helsinki in late August. Finland took over the EU’s rotating presidency on July 1.
Britain last week joined the United States in a maritime security mission in the Gulf to protect merchant vessels travelling through the Strait of Hormuz after Iran seized a British-flagged vessel. Two weeks beforehand, Britain had called for a European-led naval mission.
German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas has said that Germany will not join a USled naval mission in the Strait of Hormuz and that it favours a European mission but he has also warned it was rather difficult to make progress on that.
President Hassan Rouhani said on Wednesday Iran and other Gulf states could protect the region’s security and foreign forces were not needed, state TV reported, repeating a longstanding rejection of a US maritime security mission in the region.
The United States has launched a maritime security mission in the Gulf backed by Britain after Iran seized a British-flagged vessel there last month.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei pledged on Tuesday Tehran’s continued support for Yemen’s Houthi movement and called for dialogue among Yemenis to safeguard the war-shattered nation’s territorial integrity.
A Saudi-led coalition has been battling to restore Yemen’s ousted government in a devastating four-year war with the Iranianaligned Houthis that has killed tens of thousands and pushed the impoverished country to the brink of famine.
The Houthis, who control the capital Sanaa and most of Yemen’s other populous areas, have stepped up attacks in recent months against targets in Saudi Arabia, Iran’s arch regional foe. In response, a Saudi-led coalition has targeted military sites belonging to the Houthis, especially around Sanaa.
“I declare my support for the resistance of Yemen’s believing men and women ... Yemen’s people ... will establish a strong government,” state TV quoted Khamenei as saying in a meeting with the visiting chief negotiator of the Houthi movement Mohammed Abdul-Salam.
Khamenei, who held talks for the first time in Tehran with a senior Houthi representative, also called for “strong resistance against the Saudi-led plots to divide Yemen”, the semi-official Fars news agency reported.