TEHRAN — Yemeni Ambassador to Tehran Ibrahim Mohamed al-Dailami met with Defense Minister Brigadier General Amir Hatami in Tehran on Sunday to discuss a range of issues.

During the meeting, the two sides exchanged views about ways to boost bilateral military cooperation, Tasnim reported.

Hatami underlined the need to boost ties between the Iranian and Yemeni militaries, saying Tehran backs a political solution to the Yemeni crisis.

The Yemeni envoy, for his part, expressed gratitude to the Islamic Republic for its support of Yemen and Tehran’s stance against the Saudi-led war on his country.

Saudi Arabia and a number of its regional allies launched a devastating campaign against Yemen in March 2015, with the goal of bringing the government of former president Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi back to power and crushing the Houthi Ansarullah movement.

The U.S-based Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED), a nonprofit conflict-research organization, estimates that the war has claimed more than 100,000 lives over the past four and a half years.

The war has also taken a heavy toll on the country’s infrastructure, destroying hospitals, schools, and factories. The UN says over 24 million Yemenis are in dire need of humanitarian aid, including 10 million suffering from extreme levels of hunger.

The Western-backed military aggression, coupled with a naval blockade, has plunged Yemen into “the world’s worst humanitarian crisis”, according to the United Nations.

MH/PA