Correct end to Yemen war to exert positive impact on region: Ayat. Khamenei

The Leader made the remarks in a meeting with visiting Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan on Sunday.

“The Islamic Republic of Iran has long ago proposed a four-point peace plan to end the Yemen war, and if the war is ended in the right way, it will exert a positive impact on the region,” Ayatollah Khamenei said.

Saudi Arabia and a number of its regional allies launched a devastating campaign against Yemen in March 2015, with the goal of bringing the former Riyadh-friendly government back to power and crushing Ansarullah.

The US-based Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED), a nonprofit conflict research organization, estimates that the war has claimed more than 91,000 lives over the past four and a half years.

The war has also taken a heavy toll on the country’s infrastructure, destroying hospitals, schools, and factories. The UN says over 24 million Yemenis are in dire need of humanitarian aid, including 10 million suffering from extreme levels of hunger.

The Leader praised the Pakistani government’s efforts for the establishment of peace and security in the West Asian region, and expressed concern over the destructive role of some regional countries in the region by supporting terrorism in Iraq and Syria and their bloodshed in war-torn Yemen.

Referring to the recent hostilities by some countries against Iran, he added, “We have no enmity against these countries, but they are under the dominance of the US… They act against the Islamic Republic in favor of the US.”

“Iran has never initiated any war,” Ayatollah Khamenei stressed, warning that “but if a country starts a war against Iran, it will definitely regret that.”