Iranian foreign Minister Javad Zarif hit out at the claims from Riyadh and Washington and blamed both for the growing tensions in the strife-torn region. He said: “I think actions speak much louder than words. Now people are witnessing the source of instability in region, be it in Yemen, be it elsewhere. It’s the wrong policies that are being followed, not only by Saudi Arabia but by its allies in the West who have given it a blank cheque to continue to make these very dangerous escalations in the region.”
Mr Zarif was referring to a four-year long civil war in Yemen where a Saudi-led bombing campaign has contributed to a humanitarian crisis with thousands of deaths and economic collapse which has left more than 12 million people facing starvation.
Riyadh blames Yemen’s Houthi rebels, who receive support from Tehran, for the conflict.
But Middle East analysts believe Iran’s support for the Houthis was negligible when they seized control of the capital Sanaa in 2014 but say Saudi the bombing campaign led to greater involvement by the Iranians who started arming the rebel forces with ballistic missiles — dozens of which have been fired into Saudi Arabia.
International aid organisations and governments are calling on Saudi Arabia and its allies to halt the airstrikes, which the UN blames for the majority of the war’s civilian deaths.
The bombing campaign is backed by the US which supplies intelligence, logistics support, training and mid-air refueling to Saudi and UAE forces.
Five international aid groups warned Washington “will bear responsibility for what will be the largest famine in decades” unless it withdraws its support for the Saudi-coalition.
But the US points to Iran’s support for violent proxies such as Hezbollah and also Tehran’s backing if President Bashar al-Assad in war-torn Syria.
The Trump administration withdrew from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal in May of this year because of the country’s “malign activity” in the region and its continued testing of ballistic missiles.
But Mr Zarif insisted the US was “the party that’s violated the nuclear agreement.”
He said: “It doesn’t matter whether this administration negotiated it or the previous administration.
“The US government has negotiated it, they have violated it and it puts them in no position to accuse us of this.”