TEHRAN, April 19 (Xinhua) -- Iranian Defense Minister Brigadier General Hossein Dehghan denied on Wednesday the allegation that Tehran is sending weapons to Yemen, Press TV reported.
Dehghan's remarks came in response to the U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis, who, during a visit to Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, accused Iran of supplying missiles to Yemen's Houthi militants.
The oppressed people of Yemen have stood up to the Saudi Arabia aggression by reliance on their own power, Dehghan was quoted as saying.
The Iranian minster accused the United States of supporting Saudi Arabia in "committing crimes" against the innocent people in Yemen.
Iran has called for an immediate halt to bloodshed in Yemen and urged efforts to start a political process to form a national unity government in the Arab country.
The situation in Yemen deteriorated economically and politically as of March 2015, when a war broke out between the Iran-backed Shiite Houthi group, allies of former President Ali Abdullah Saleh, and government forces backed by a Saudi-led Arab coalition.
The civil war, ground battles and airstrikes have killed over 10,000 individuals, half of them civilians, and injured over 35,000 others and displaced over two million people.
