TEHRAN— Iran has rejected as “baseless and unsubstantiated” allegations by the United States that Tehran is destabilizing Yemen or has used commercial flights to Sana’a to transfer military personnel or equipment in violation of United Nations Security Council Resolution 2216.

In a letter addressed Thursday to UN Secretary-General António Guterres and the president of the Security Council, Iran’s ambassador and deputy permanent representative to the United Nations, Gholamhossein Darzi, dismissed the allegations as an attempt by Washington to mislead the council and deflect attention from its unlawful actions in Yemen and the wider region.

Darzi was responding to remarks made by the US representative and other Security Council members during a meeting on Aug. 13 devoted to “The Situation in the Middle East (Yemen),” the council’s 10,208th meeting.

“The allegation leveled by the United States’ representative that Iran is destabilizing Yemen, or that Iranian commercial flights to Sana’a were used to transfer military personnel or equipment in violation of Security Council resolution 2216 (2015), is entirely unfounded,” Darzi said.

He said the claims were unsupported by credible evidence and accused the United States of seeking to shift responsibility for regional instability away from its own conduct.

According to Darzi, recent Iranian flights to Sana’a were humanitarian in nature. He said the prolonged closure and restrictions imposed on Sana’a International Airport, combined with the blockade, had had severe humanitarian consequences for Yemen.

“Since the suspension of regular commercial flights in 2016, millions of Yemenis have been deprived of their basic right to freedom of movement,” Darzi said, citing restricted access to medical treatment abroad, education, employment, family reunification and humanitarian assistance.

He argued that portraying humanitarian assistance intended to mitigate those consequences as a destabilizing activity was “factually false” and legally and morally indefensible.

Darzi also accused Washington of lacking credibility to portray itself as a defender of peace and stability in Yemen while bearing responsibility for policies that have contributed to the country’s humanitarian crisis.

The Iranian envoy further accused the United States of undermining the UN-backed political process in Yemen through its military operations against the country in March 2025.

He said those actions violated Yemen’s sovereignty and territorial integrity and the UN Charter, while also contributing to further obstacles to a UN-facilitated political settlement.

Darzi also criticized 'Washington’s selective and abusive interpretation of Security Council Resolution 2722,' adopted in 2024, arguing that its use as a justification for military action against Yemen and civilian infrastructure had heightened regional tensions and undermined prospects for a political settlement.

“It is therefore deeply ironic that the same regime whose actions have repeatedly undermined peace, violated Yemen’s sovereignty, and resorted to unlawful force ... now seeks to accuse Iran of destabilizing Yemen,” Darzi said.