"Some are exuberant to milk, and others even happier about being milked. Meanwhile, Yemenis, on whose backs juvenile delinquents seek to jumpstart careers, remain forgotten by the West," Zarif said in a new post on his official Twitter account on Monday.
In his post, the top Iranian diplomat made a clear allusion to Western countries’ efforts to sell more arms to Saudi Arabia, which has been waging a devastating war on defenseless Yemeni people since March 2015.
Zarif’s tweet was also in reaction to the ongoing visit to Washington by the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman during which US President Donald Trump offered the Saudi prince to buy more American military hardware, while joking about their price by telling Salman “that’s peanuts for you.”
The United States on Thursday formally approved weapons sales to Saudi Arabia totaling more than $1 billion, despite growing pressure from rights groups to halt arms deals with Riyadh.
According to a report by Yemeni Ministry of Human Rights on Sunday, the ongoing Saudi-led military campaign against Yemen has killed and injured over 600,000 civilians, including more than a quarter of a million children.
More than 247,000 children have lost their lives due to severe malnutrition, and 17,608 civilians have died because of inability to travel abroad to seek medical treatment.
The United Nations says a record 22.2 million Yemenis are in need of food aid, including 8.4 million threatened by severe hunger.
Iran's Foreign Ministry in a statement on Sunday urged the United States and “some European countries” to discontinue their support for aggressor states in Yemen, accusing them of destroying the impoverished Arab country and committing crimes against humanity.