Russia vetoed the United Nation Security Council resolution over Yemen missiles on Monday. The blocking of that important UN document would have pressured Iran over the illegal use of Iranian-made missiles by Houthi insurgents in Yemen.
Iran has denied providing military aid to the Houthis. But the United Nations panel of experts found in January that missiles fired by the Houthis into Saudi Arabia, including one that landed near the capital, Riyadh, appeared to have been manufactured in Iran.
The UN SC has called the nearly three-year-old civil war in Yemen the world’s worst man-made humanitarian disaster. Millions of Yemenis have been displaced, a majority of the population lacks food and aid agencies have struggled to supply assistance.
Monday’s Russian veto was a defeat for the United States, which has been lobbying for months for Iran to be held accountable at the UN, while at the same time threatening to quit a 2015 deal among world powers to curb Iran’s nuclear program if “disastrous flaws” are not fixed.
The US reaction on Russia’s vetoing the UN resolution
Nikki Haley commented this Russia’s move during her visit to Honduran capital Tegucigalpa. In particular, the US Ambassador to the UN said:
“If Russia is going to continue to cover for Iran then the U.S. and our partners need to take action on our own. If we’re not going to get action on the council then we have to take our own actions,”
she said.
Security Council diplomats struggled unsuccessfully to reach a compromise over the Russian objections to Britain’s draft, which identified Iran as an embargo violator.
Jonathan Allen, UK’s deputy envoy, told the journalists that the draft had conveyed “the very serious concerns” relayed by the panel of experts and had made clear “Iranian noncompliance” with the embargo.
