WASHINGTON: US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo yesterday stressed the need to hold Iran’s Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei accountable for destabilising Gulf’s security and prolonging suffering of the Yemeni people.
“Iran’s support for Houthis in Yemen not only enables attacks on Saudi Arabia and the UAE but also risks increasing Yemen’s already massive humanitarian crisis,” he tweeted from his personal account, which was reported by US Radio SAWA.
In a series of symposiums held in Paris in preparation for Iranian opposition’s annual conference, international experts and politicians and former officials called for regime change in Iran and expressed support for Iranian protesters.
Earlier, Washington stressed its resolve to hold Iran accountable for “violations of the UN Security Council resolutions and support of terrorism”, calling on Security Council members to impose sanctions on Iran.
In a statement on Thursday, US Representative to UN Security Council Nikki Haley said the international organisation’s reports are evidence that Iran continues to violate UN Security Council resolutions by shipping weapons across the Middle East, blatantly defying travel bans and providing support to terrorist organisations destabilising the region.
The US urged fellow UN Security Council members on Wednesday to punish Iran for “malign behaviour” in the Middle East, at a meeting on implementation of the 2015 nuclear deal with Tehran.
“When confronted with a country that continually violates this council’s resolutions, it is imperative that we pursue meaningful consequences,” said Jonathan Cohen, the US deputy ambassador to the United Nations.
“That is why we urge members of this Council to join us in the imposition of sanctions that target Iran’s malign behaviour in the region,” he stressed.
In his remarks, Cohen once again accused Iran of supplying missiles to the Houthi militias in Yemen in violation of an international arms embargo.