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Iran denies arming Yemeni militants: spokesman

Xinhua, February 6, 2017 Adjust font size:

Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman denied on Monday that the Islamic republic has armed Yemeni militants.

"We do not interfere in Yemen's conflicts and we have given no weapons to Yemeni combatants," said Bahram Qasemi during his weekly press briefing.

"Accusations against Iran in this regard is just a lie and irrelevant, and we seriously reject all of them," said Qasemi.

The situation in Yemen deteriorated economically and politically as of March 2015, when a war broke out between the Iran-backed Shiite Houthi group, allies of former President Ali Abdullash Saleh, and government forces backed by a Saudi-led Arab coalition.

Houthis and Saleh's forces control most of Yemen's northern regions while government forces backed by the Saudi-led military coalition share control of the rest of the country, including seven southern provinces.

The civil war, ground battles and airstrikes have killed over 10,000 individuals, half of whom were civilians, injured over 35,000 others and displaced over two million people. Endit