SANAA, 28 September 2021, (TON): Yemeni Foreign Minister Ahmad Awad bin Mubarak on Monday urged the international community to put more financial pressure on the Iran-backed Houthi militia, in an address at the UN General Assembly in New York.

He thanked UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on behalf of President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi for his efforts to bring peace to Yemen, and congratulated its people on the anniversary of the 1962 revolution.

He added “Bin Mubarak reminded the assembly that Yemen has been at war for seven years, with the Houthis supported logistically and militarily by Iran which, aims to destabilize both Yemen and the wider region by backing armed sectarian proxy groups.”

“This proves,” he said, “that Iran has been, and continues to be, part of the problem in Yemen, rather than the solution.”

He added that the Houthis have presided over a humanitarian crisis in their bid to enrich themselves, calling their coup an “autumn of suffering, injustice, oppression, destruction of political participation, suffocation of public freedom, raids on houses, explosion of schools and places of worship, chasing of opponents, torture of citizens and transforming of Sanaa, a city of history and coexistence, into a large prison for the Yemeni people.”

Bin Mubarak said Yemen’s economy has declined by over 50 percent since the start of the conflict.