Iran Ready for Cooperation with New UN Envoy to Yemen: Envoy

Iran is ready for cooperation with Griffiths to end the three-year-long crisis in that country, Khoshroo said in a meeting with UN Secretary General António Guterres on Wednesday.

Griffiths will replace Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed who announced on Monday that he will step down from the role at the end of next month.

Khoshroo referred to the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Yemen and stressed the need for pursuing a political solution to the crisis.

Any uncalculated and unilateral measure at the UN Security Council regarding Yemen would only lead to deterioration of the situation, he warned.

Guterres, for his part, said he will do his best to reach a political compromise in Yemen.

The UN secretary general and the Iranian envoy also discussed the latest developments in Syria, with both underlining the need for continuation of a political process to resolve the crisis in the war torn country.

Yemen’s defenseless people have been under massive attacks by a Saudi-led coalition for almost three years.

Since March 2015, Saudi Arabia and some of its Arab allies have been carrying out deadly airstrikes against the Houthi Ansarullah movement in an attempt to restore power to fugitive former president Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi, an ally of Riyadh.

Over 14,000 Yemenis, including thousands of women and children, have lost their lives in the deadly military campaign.

Syria has also been gripped by civil war since March 2011 with various terrorist groups currently controlling parts of it.

According to a report by the Syrian Center for Policy Research, the conflict has claimed the lives of over 470,000 people, injured 1.9 million others, and displaced nearly half of the country’s pre-war population of about 23 million within or beyond its borders.