UN: Iran may be willing to help end war in Yemen

NEW YORK: United Nations experts say Iran might be willing to play “a constructive role” in ending the war in Yemen, though they added in a new report that Teheran still appears to be arming Yemen’s Houthi Syiah rebels with ballistic missiles and drones.

According to excerpts of a report to the Security Council obtained on Tuesday by The Associated Press, the panel of experts monitoring sanctions against Yemen raised the long-rumoured possibility of Iran playing a role in restoring peace.

“The panel believes Iran might now be willing to play a constructive role in finding a peaceful solution for Yemen, as evident in the country’s ultimately unsuccessful attempt to broker a ceasefire for the holy month of Ramadan together with some European nations,” the report said.

Iran has expanded its influence far beyond its borders in recent years, sponsoring tens of thousands of Syiah militiamen spread across Iraq and Syria and on to Lebanon.

The rivalry between the predominantly Syiah Muslim nation of Iran and Sunni Muslim-dominated Saudi Arabia has torn the region apart, playing out on regional battlefields and fanning sectarian flames in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Bahrain and Yemen, all costly interventions for Teheran.

With the United States set to restore sanctions on Iran next week that were lifted under the nuclear deal President Donald Trump has abandoned, the Iranian currency has been in freefall, giving rise to fears of prolonged economic suffering and further civil unrest.

The Yemen conflict follows the Houthi takeover of the capital Sanaa in 2014, which routed the internationally recognised government. A Saudi-led coalition allied with the government has been fighting the Houthis since 2015.

The UN and Western nations say Iran has supplied the Houthis with weapons, from assault rifles to the ballistic missiles they have fired deep into Saudi Arabia. Iran denies this.

But the panel of experts said in the latest report, covering the first six months of 2018, that inspection of debris from 10 missiles launched into Saudi Arabia and unmanned aerial drones used by the Houthis “show characteristics similar to weapons systems known to be produced in the Islamic Republic of Iran”.

The panel also still received “evidence of widespread violations of international humanitarian law and international human rights law by all parties to the conflict”.