IRNA – British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt described Iran’s role in solving Yemeni crisis as significant saying he held talks with Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif about Iran’s use of its influence for constructive interaction with the Houthis in Yemen.


He made the remarks after his last week’s visit to Saudi Arabia, adding that a solution should be found for Yemen's appalling situation.

Hunt arrived in Tehran at the head of political delegation early Monday and has so far held talks with Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and Supreme National Security Council Secretary Ali Shamkhani.

At the end of his Riyadh visit last week, he said, “Prospects for talks to end Yemen's 3-1/2-year-old war were 'more real' after Saudi Arabia confirmed to him its willingness to evacuate 50 wounded Houthi fighters as a confidence-building measure.”

The Western-backed Saudi-led coalition in Yemen resumed air strikes on the main port city of Hodeidah after a lull on Monday as Western allies pressed Riyadh to end a war that has pushed the impoverished country to the verge of starvation.

'Even though there's been a temporary lull in the fighting, ... it is a desperate humanitarian situation and so I impressed on everyone the urgency of the situation we're facing,' Hunt said, CNBC reported.

“The world’s worst humanitarian crisis is not a natural disaster. It is the man-made situation in Yemen. I have just been in Saudi Arabia and the UAE because there is a window of opportunity to tackle it, he said.

75% of the population in Yemen requires humanitarian assistance and 8.4 million are at risk of starvation, he said.

Diplomacy and negotiation remain the only path to ending the conflict, he noted.

Next meeting of talks on Yemen will be held in Stockholm within the next weeks.