An unnamed military official allied with the Houthi movement rejected as “baseless” the US claims, saying Pentagon’s accusations were an attempt to provide a pretext for the intelligence and logistics support it has provided to Saudi Arabia in its military campaign against Yemen.

“Such claims aim to create false justifications to step up attacks and to cover up for the continuous crimes committed by the Saudi coalition against the Yemeni people,” said the Yemeni official.

Jaberi Ansari further stressed the importance of maintaining security across the Bab el-Mandeb Strait.

“Security of the international waterway of Bab el-Mandeb Strait is important for us and must be respected by all sides,” the Iranian official said.

He also called for serious talks in Yemen by observing the rights of all the warring sides.

Saudi Arabia has been waging war on Yemen since March 2015. The war was launched in an unsuccessful attempt to reinstate Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, who has resigned as Yemen’s president.

The war has killed at least 10,000 people, amid countless reports suggesting the deliberate and indiscriminate targeting of civilian infrastructure by Saudi forces and mercenaries.

The Swiss official, for his part, said the Yemeni crisis must be solved through political approaches.

Rossier is in Tehran to hold talks with senior Iranian officials on the latest developments in the Middle East, particularly in Yemen, Syria and Iraq.

He noted that even American and Israeli experts and strategists have confirmed that the current conflicts in the Muslim world best serve the interests of the Zionists and that any success by Iran and the Lebanese resistance movement, Hezbollah, would be detrimental to them.

The top Iranian parliamentarian added that whenever promising prospects emerge for putting an end to the regional conflicts, the world powers rush to hold meetings and try to prolong the crises.

He said these powers have reinforced their links with terrorist groups operating in regional countries and are covertly providing them with weapons and military equipment.

Since March 2011, Syria has been hit by militancy it blames on some Western states and their regional allies. The Syrian military is engaged in an operation to rid the country of Daesh and other terrorist groups.

Over the past months, Syria has managed to recapture swathes of land from Daesh and other groups in the east and north of the country. The Syrian military has used the assistance of fighters from Hezbollah as well as advisory military support from Iran. Russia also helps Syria in the fight against terrorists through a series of coordinated airstrikes on their positions.

This is while Iraqi army troops, backed by fighters from allied Popular Mobilization Units, have been engaged in military operations to win back regions held by Daesh and have managed to liberate most of these areas.

The militants have been committing heinous crimes against all ethnic and religious communities in the northern and western parts of Iraq.