The Islamic Republic is awash in harsh denunciations of Saudi Arabia for leading an air campaign of nine Arab nations against Houthi rebels in Saudi Arabia.
The fierce tenor of the criticism was led by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenehi, who went so far as to charge Saudi Arabia with “genocide” for its campaign against the Houthis.
The news coverage in the Iranian media is extensive and heavily condemnatory of the Saudis. There are daily stories about the air raids killing innocent civilians. In fact, from reading the Iranian media, one would think the Saudis were only targeting Yemeni residences and children and not the Houthi rebels at all.
The most common theme heard in Iran is that the Saudis are headed not only for a military loss but also for national destruction. This is a common rhetorical line in the Islamic Republic for any country the regime is targeting as an enemy. For example, in the quarter-century since the Soviet Union dissolved, regime figures regularly say the United States is on the verge of dissolving into 50 separate countries.
Khamenehi was the nastiest in assailing the Saudis. He said the Saudis used to showed more sobriety and self-restraint under the late King Abdullah. But now, he said, policy is controlled by inexperienced young people who pursue savagery. That rhetoric was assumed to be aimed at the new defense minister who is about 30 years old and the son of the new king.
Khamenehi said Saudi Arabia would be defeated. In the colorful Persian phraseology he used, he said, “The Saudis will definitely be struck down and their nose will be rubbed into the ground.”
He said the Saudis were guilty of “genocide” in their air raids in Yemen. He leveled that charge just after the UN said about 540 people, including troops, had been killed in the air raids that began March 25.
The genocide charge was hyperbolic in the extreme. The definition of genocide in the international Convention for the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide states: “Genocide is a crime of intentional destruction of a national, ethnic, racial or religious group.”
Even Deputy Foreign Minister Hossain Amir-Abdollahian said the Saudi-led air campaign would end with the disintegration of Saudi Arabia. And he also accused the Saudi Air Force of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Major General Hassan Firuzabadi, the chief of the Joint Staff and highest ranking military officer in Iran, added another theme, saying the silence of Western governments proves that they are backing the Saudi air campaign. Actually, many Western countries have not been silent. France and the United States have both publicly endorsed the campaign and the United States is providing tanker aircraft to refuel planes from the nine Arab countries bombing Yemen.
At Tehran congregational prayers last Friday, Ayatollah Ahmad Khomeini pursued the theme of Saudi Arabia facing defeat. “The kingdom “will undoubtedly emerge the loser from this battlefield,” he said.
