Senior Iranian official throws Yemen’s Houthis under the bus

Iranian regimes arms Houthis in Yemen

Reporting by PMOI/MEK

Iran, September 25, 2019—On Tuesday, Mohammad Hossein Bagheri, the Iranian regime’s Chief of Staff of Armed Forces, tried to divert attention from his regime’s crimes while laying the blame on Tehran’s proxies in Yemen.

“Today, [the Houthis] have transformed from simple fighters who didn’t have a simple rifle to have weapons that can down strategic airplanes of their enemies and target their oil facilities a thousand kilometers away from their borders,” Bagheri said in a Majlis (parliament) hearing, referring to a recent missile and drone attack on the facilities of Saudi oil giant Aramco.

Bagheri’s comments come against the backdrop of a slate of undeniable evidence that the attack on the Saudi complex was in fact launched from Iran.

Since the attack took place, the Iranian regime has been under intensifying pressure and criticism for its destabilizing and destructive role in the Middle East region. Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, the president-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), described the attack as an “act of war.”

On the prior day, France, Germany and the UK issued a joint statement in which they officially attributed the attack to the Iranian regime.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said the attack on the facilities of Saudi Aramco was a "game-changer." He reiterated that the claim of responsibility for the attacks by Yemen’s Houthi Shiite rebels is “hardly credible.”

The Iranian regime has a history of fanning the flames of war whenever it finds itself in a difficult situation. The regime’s attack on Saudi Aramco came at a time that Tehran is grappling with intensifying unrest and protests inside Iran and the expanding activities of the Iranian resistance inside the country and across the globe. The regime is also faced with a solidifying international front against its terrorist activities and its defiance of global norms and values.

The precarious situation has pushed Tehran to resort to desperate methods to divert attention from its illicit activities and to exude power to boost the morale of its officials and rank-and-file.

But the backlash and outrage from the terrorist attack against Aramco have caused the regime to deny its role in the attack while also trying taking credit for it. Bagheri’s attempt to throw the Houthis under the bus for the Aramco attack can be seen in this context.

Last week, Iranian regime President Hassan Rouhani also tried to take advantage of the attack while also presenting the Houthis as responsible.

“They attacked an industrial site to warn you (the U.S., Arabic and European countries) and teach you a lesson,” he said in a cabinet meeting on September 18, resorting to the mullahs’ language and making Iran’s role crystal clear in these unprecedented assaults.

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