TEHRAN – An announcement by Saudi Arabia that it has ended a military campaign against Yemen indicates that Riyadh has failed in it “childish” offensive, the Iranian parliament speaker says.

Addressing an open session of the parliament on Wednesday, Ali Larijani criticized the Saudi Defense Ministry statement that the airstrikes have successfully removed “threats to Saudi Arabia’s security and that of neighboring countries.”

“Firstly, more than a thousand people, including men, women and children, were martyred and thousands were wounded. Secondly, some of the country’s [Yemen’s] infrastructure was ruined; and thirdly, Ansarullah revolutionary forces together with the Yemeni army took control of several provinces in Yemen,” Press TV quoted Larijani as saying.

“The Saudi government should now be asked which of the three was among the objectives of ‘Operation Decisive Storm,’” Larijani said, using the title of the first Saudi military operation against Yemen, which has now ended.

The month-long bombing campaign caused a devastating humanitarian crisis and threatened to ignite a broader regional conflict.

According to the New York Times, it was unclear exactly how much the airstrikes had advanced Saudi Arabia’s stated goal of helping restore a Yemeni government that collapsed many weeks ago as Houthi rebels took over the country’s capital, Sana.

Since the onset of the airstrikes against Yemen in late March, Tehran saw the campaign as beneficial to Israel and reiterated that intervention in Yemen will have no outcome other than a decline in Muslims’ power, he added.

“Wise Saudis must now precisely assess their conduct, [and realize] that such methods will not only have no benefit for their security but will totally lay to waste their Islamic dignity.”

Weeks of fighting in Yemen, which was already suffering from the absence of any central authority, have left nearly a thousand people dead and provided an opening for Al Qaeda’s branch there to expand its territory.

MD/P