TEHRAN, March 26 (Xinhua) -- Iran welcomes any initiative that could stop the war in Yemen and remove blockade on the impoverished country, Iran's Foreign Ministry said Thursday.
"Yemen has faced the biggest humanitarian crisis as a result of a destructive war," Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi said.
For five years, the war and "the aggressors' simultaneous aerial, naval, and land blockade" on Yemen have blocked humanitarian assistance to the people on the Arab state, said Mousavi.
"And now, the spread of the coronavirus disease amid the absence of the most basic facilities and the gravity of the humanitarian situation in the country has doubled concerns," he added.
Mousavi said that the recent proposal by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres for reaching a global ceasefire of conflicts amid the novel coronavirus outbreak, has been welcomed by Yemen's Iran-allied forces.
The proposal could serve as an "important step" toward preventing deaths of thousands of innocent people and opening up a window of opportunity for establishment of peace and stability, the Iranian spokesman said.
The Iran-allied Houthi militants seized the northern provinces including the capital Sanaa in late 2014, forcing Yemen's President Abdu-Rabbu Mansour Hadi and his government into exile.
A coalition formed by Saudi Arabia and several other Arab countries intervened militarily in the Yemeni conflict in support of Hadi in March 2015.
