Iran: Recalled envoy dies of covid-19

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Iran’s top diplomat to Yemen died Tuesday after reportedly contracting the coronavirus, Iranian state TV said, just days after he was abruptly recalled from his mission in the war-torn nation.

State-run media in Iran said Ambassador Hassan Irloo got infected in Yemen, where a conflict between Iran-backed Houthi rebels and a Saudi-led military coalition has raged for six years. Authorities said he was flown to Iran for urgent treatment over the weekend.

However, The Wall Street Journal earlier reported that Irloo was being removed over growing strains between Iran and the Houthis, who seized Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, and much of the country’s north in 2014. In an effort to oust the Iran-backed rebels on its southern border, Saudi Arabia intervened in the war months later with a U.S.-backed bombing campaign.

Iran’s foreign ministry has denied that his departure was the result of tensions with the Houthis. Houthi spokesman and chief negotiator Mohammed Abdul-Salam offered his condolences Monday.

Citing anonymous Middle Eastern and Western officials, the Wall Street Journal reported that Irloo’s influence had stirred resentment among the rebels, who were apparently seeking more distance from Tehran. The officials said Irloo had shown no signs of serious illness.

Not much is known about Irloo, but the U.S. State Department under President Donald Trump described him as a member of Iran’s powerful paramilitary Revolutionary Guard. Iran’s semiofficial ISNA news agency Tuesday praised Irloo as a “friend and comrade” of Gen. Qassem Soleimani, the leader of the Guard’s expeditionary Quds Force who was killed in an American drone strike in Baghdad last year.