TEHRAN - The spokesman of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) has reiterated Iran’s stance on the Yemeni attacks against Israeli ships in the Red Sea, saying though Tehran supports the operations it has no direct or indirect role in their execution.

“The Islamic Revolution has been a source of inspiration for various countries in the past four and a half decades. The world witnessed how we were able to fight an eight-year war (against the invading Saddam army) all on our own. They saw how we managed to withstand harsh Western sanctions that were meant to bring us to our knees. Of course, all this will inspire those who seek freedom and independence,” Ramezan Sharif said during an exclusive interview with the Tehran Times.

“Americans attribute attacks in the Red Sea to Iran because they don’t want to admit their failure against the country that they have been trying to defeat over the past eight years,” the IRGC spokesman added, referring to the Saudi-led war against Yemen that started in March 2015 with the backing of the United States.

Yemeni armed forces have been carrying out attacks on Israeli-bound and Israeli-owned ships in the Red Sea in response to the regime’s genocidal war against Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip. “Americans do everything but address the root cause of the issue. As Yemenis said from the beginning, the attacks would stop once Israel ceases its onslaughts on Gaza. But Washington would rather humiliate itself by fruitless attacks on the Yemeni soil than to pressure the Zionist regime,” the official explained.