Iran Says Yemen Aid Ship to Be Inspected in Djibouti
Iran said on Wednesday its aid ship bound for war-torn Yemen is to dock in Djibouti for inspection, heading off a potential confrontation with the United States.
The aid "will be inspected in Djibouti. The ship will dock in Djibouti and the protocol laid down by the United Nations will be implemented," Deputy Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said, quoted by the ISNA news agency.
Iran had said the ship was expected to reach the Yemeni port of Hodeida on Thursday without stopping in Djibouti, in defiance of warnings from Washington and a Saudi-led coalition conducting air strikes on Shiite Huthi rebels in Yemen.
The vessel, renamed Nejat (Rescue), is carrying 2,500 tonnes of aid including flour, rice, canned food, medical supplies and bottled water, all urgently needed in the conflict-wracked and impoverished state.
Its passengers include doctors, anti-war activists from the United States, France and Germany, and journalists, according to Tasnim, a news agency associated with Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards.
But the ship's mission had been overshadowed by U.S. calls for it to head to the U.N. emergency relief hub in Djibouti instead of docking directly in Hodeida.
The Pentagon said the U.S. Navy was tracking the ship, angering Tehran which insisted it had U.N. approval for the humanitarian mission and warned against any attempt to inspect its cargo.
Saudi Arabia, meanwhile, accuses Tehran of arming the Huthis, a charge repeatedly denied by Iran which supports the rebels.
In another sign of easing tensions over the humanitarian efforts, U.N. aid chief Valerie Amos met Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif in Tehran on Wednesday to discuss speeding up relief to Yemen.
And Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, the U.N. envoy for Yemen, is also expected to arrive in the Iranian capital on Wednesday night.
20 May 2015, 19:23
40
Go back to the past articles and read texas, don't make up your own stories, I wrote if the Iranian ships going to Yemen with humanitarian aid got fired upon by Saudi coalition, then it would have consequences. You said they had weapons on their ships, then why do they go through U.N protocols?
20 May 2015, 21:02
30
As told by the arab coalition? They are bringing humanitarian aid from Red crescent, and you want to shoot it? All Red Cross and Crescent aid stations must go through U.N that's normal. Yet you say it is a defeat for them to aid yemens civilians, you are a wahabi.
20 May 2015, 21:26
30
You laugh yeah. Good, let the Saudis make their ground invasion of Yemen if they are so powerful as you write.
Even better, let them invade Syria with their airforce and see who laughs.
Also go find my quotes on the earlier Yemeni articles we discussed in, then you can claim and use my words don't make your own. I stand by my own words unlike you. Your new name is "the truth" then use the truth.
20 May 2015, 22:02
30
Yes by going to Djibouti under U.N surveillance is fine, because their aid ships have nothing to hide. That is my whole point on this matter, Saudis thought those ships contained arms, then why would Iran go and let their ships be inspected freely then?
20 May 2015, 22:03
30
Interfeering by force, or let the U.N inspect the ships are two different subjects texas. How you combine those, is a question.
