Iran has prevented Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) from participating in the Conference on Disarmament as observers over the two regimes’ war crimes during their campaign of aggression against Yemen.

Speaking on Tuesday, Esmaeil Baghaei Hamaneh, Iran’s permanent ambassador to the UN office in Geneva, said the Islamic Republic had acted to block Riyadh and Abu Dhabi from joining the conference due to its concerns about the forum’s status as the only multilateral international institution in the nuclear disarmament sphere.

He warned that Saudi Arabia’s “destructive” attendance at the Conference on Disarmament would run counter to the forum’s goals and mission.
The kingdom can not have any constructive presence in the disarmament debates, the Iranian envoy said, noting, “As experience shows, that country (Saudi Arabia) only abuses the meetings and discussions at the Conference on Disarmament to distract public opinion and pin the blame on others for its own mistakes and crimes in Yemen.”
Baghaei Hamaneh also blasted Saudi Arabia for playing a destabilizing role in the region by forming a military coalition against its southern neighbor.

The Saudi-led offensive against Yemen has slaughtered civilians, devastated the impoverished county’s infrastructure and fueled regional insecurity and instability, he added.

The Saudi-led offensive against Yemen has slaughtered civilians, devastated the impoverished county’s infrastructures and fueled regional insecurity and instability, he added.

Saudi Arabia launched the devastating military aggression against Yemen in March 2015 in collaboration with the UAE and its other allies, with arms and logistics support from the US and several Western countries.

The aim was to return to power a Riyadh-backed former regime and defeat the Houthi Ansarullah movement that has been running state affairs in the absence of an effective government in the country.

The war has failed to achieve its goals, but killed hundreds of thousands of innocent Yemenis and turned the situation in Yemen into the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

Elsewhere in his remarks, Baghaei Hamaneh denounced Saudi Arabia for possessing the biggest stockpile of destabilizing weapons in the region and pursuing a non-transparent nuclear program.

The kingdom has so far kept its nuclear activities secret, defying calls for it to implement the International Atomic Energy Agency’s Comprehensive Safeguards Agreements, a system of inspection and verification of the peaceful uses of nuclear materials.

Reports about Saudi Arabia’s undeclared nuclear activities were confirmed earlier last year by satellite images and US intelligence sources.