Iranian flight lands in Sanaa for 1st time in 25 years

A direct flight from Tehran arrived on Sunday to Yemeni capital Sanaa, the first by Iranian airlines since the unification of Yemen in 1990.

"An Iranian flight carrying a medical aid consignment arrived today in Sanaa International Airport from Tehran," Mohamed al-Serihi, senior official at Sanaa airport, told The Anadolu Agency.

A day earlier, Yemen's Shia Houthi group, which controls government institutions in capital Sanaa, signed a memorandum of understanding with Tehran by which 28 direct flights would be operated between Sanaa and Tehran every week.

The memorandum was signed in Tehran by civil aviation authorities of both nations, the official Yemeni news agency, which is controlled by the Houthis, had reported.

The semi-official Iranian news agency Fars had said that direct flights between Sanaa and Tehran would open the door for the export of Iranian commodities to Yemen.

Nevertheless, some observers express fears that the flights could be used in the transfer of arms to Yemen's Houthis.

Tension has mounted in Yemen since the powerful Shia Houthi group seized control of capital Sanaa in September of 2014. The group has sought to extend its control in other Yemeni provinces ever since.

On Feb. 6, the Houthis issued what it described as a constitutional declaration dissolving Yemen's parliament and establishing a 551-member transitional council.

The declaration was, however, rejected by most of Yemen's political forces - along with some neighboring Gulf countries - which described it as a coup against constitutional legitimacy.

Some Gulf States have even accused Iran of backing a Shia insurgency in the fractious nation.

Amid Escalation Fears, Russia Says Kiev Sent Fighters to Crimea

MOSCOW, March 1 – Armed men dispatched from Kiev to the southern Ukrainian region of Crimea attempted an overnight storm of the local Interior Ministry, the Russian Foreign Ministry said Saturday. 

 

Situation in Crimea

“As a result of this perfidious provocation several people were injured,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

“This confirms that certain well-known political circles in Kiev are striving for the destabilization of the situation… we call on all those giving such orders from Kiev to show restraint.”

The allegation comes as international media report large scale Russian military movements in Crimea that have included tanks, helicopters and troops. In recent days heavily armed soldiers in unmarked uniforms have occupied the region’s parliament, airports and other strategic points across the peninsula. Reports from the regional capital of Simferopol on Saturday suggested that the military presence had been strengthened with the appearance of several manned machine gun positions around the parliament, which is flying the Russian flag after it was seized by unidentified gunmen earlier this week.

Ukrainian authorities have accused Russia of seeking to provoke a conflict. World leaders, including US President Barack Obama, have expressed their deep concern about the apparent Russian incursion into Crimea. Interim Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseny Yatsenyuk said Saturday that Russia should immediately recall all its troops to the bases where they are normally located.

“If not, the responsibility for any armed confrontation provoked by the radicals being de facto supported by the Russian military will lie with the Russian leadership,” Yatsenyuk said.

Russia maintains that any military movements in Crimea are within the framework of a 1997 agreement regulating its use of Black Sea naval bases on the peninsula that it leases from Ukraine. Self-defense squads, which maintain that they will resist orders from Kiev, have been forming in the southern and eastern regions of Ukraine since the opposition swept to power in Kiev last weekend The Foreign Ministry said that the alleged assault on the Interior Ministry in Crimea on Saturday was fought off by some of these pro-Russian self defense squads. It did not specify which side suffered the casualties.