Iran calls for US to withdraw support for Israeli strikes on Yemen

Yemen has been divided between the Houthis and the official government since the Houthis captured the capital, Sana’a, in 2015. Israel remains opposed to a US-negotiated settlement with Iran that leaves its civil nuclear programme intact, and wants US cooperation in an attack on Iran’s nuclear sites. The Iranian foreign ministry on Monday issued a statement insisting the Houthis operate independently from Iran, and was not a proxy army. But Iran’s support for the Houthis, it is argued, hands US Republican hardliners the chance to lobby that Iran’s support for resistance groups in the region must form a central part of the US agenda in the talks. Iran has insisted discussions will focus solely on the monitoring of its civil nuclear programme, and the lifting of sanctions.