Kuwaiti newspaper: Iran rejects French call for calm in Yemen
English - Monday 31 January 2022 الساعة 07:24 pm
Aden, NewsYemen:
Iran rejected a French call for a regional calm, especially in Yemen and Lebanon, during a call between Iranian President Ibrahim Raisi and his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron, a Kuwaiti newspaper reported Monday.
On Monday, the Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Jarida quoted a source close to Iranian President Hassan Rouhani as saying: The French president asked the former, in a call that took place between them yesterday (Sunday), to pressure the Houthi rebels to stop their escalation against the UAE and to show a goodwill gesture regarding Yemen. for Saudi Arabia; For the two countries to return to the stalled dialogue rounds between them since September, but Raisi said, "The solution to the Yemeni crisis is not in the hands of Tehran," he claimed.
According to the newspaper, Macron, in the first contact of its kind between the two men, after the French president's visit to Saudi Arabia and the UAE, touched on the Lebanese file, and asked Iran to curb Hezbollah's aggression against the Gulf states and show openness to the Kuwaiti initiative, but Raisi considered that the Gulf demands suggest Hizbullah's disarmament, and that this is not up for discussion.
The source said that Macron stressed the need for direct US-Iranian negotiations.
He said, "The administration of US President Joe Biden is ready to offer concessions at the direct negotiating table, and Tehran should take advantage of this opportunity before the congressional midterm elections, which may change the political structure in the United States."
According to the source, Macron asked Tehran to stay away from Russia and not to rely on it, stressing that Moscow "can sell Iran at a very low price in exchange for any concession it might obtain in Ukraine."
Macron suggested - according to the newspaper - that the Europeans negotiate with President Biden to agree that Iran would increase its exports of natural gas and oil to Turkey, and from there to Europe as a confidence-building measure in the event that Russian supplies to Europe were subjected to any interruption due to the Ukraine war.
