TEHRAN, Iran -- Iranian President Hassan Rouhani criticized Saudi Arabia on Saturday, warning that the Saudi royal family in Riyadh will harvest the hatred it is sowing in Yemen through its airstrike campaign.
Since March 26, the Saudi-led coalition has been attacking Shiite rebels known as Houthis and allied fighters loyal to Yemen's ousted President Ali Abdullah Saleh. Iran supports the rebels but denies providing military support.
Addressing an army parade in Tehran, in a speech broadcast live on state TV on Saturday, Rouhani said killing civilians in Yemen will bring neither power nor pride for Saudi Arabia.
"What does bombing the innocent ... Yemeni people mean? What goals are you pursuing? Will killing children bring power to you? You planted the seeds of hatred in this region and you will see the response sooner or later," Rouhani said. "Don't bomb children, elderly men and women in Yemen. Attacking the oppressed will bring disgrace ... for the aggressors."
Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has already called the Saudi-led airstrikes in Yemen "genocide" and a "major crime."
Iran has presented a four-point plan to end the conflict that includes humanitarian aid, dialogue and the formation of a broad-based Yemeni unity government after a proposed cease-fire was rejected by Saudi Arabia.
Rouhani also accused Saudi Arabia of providing weapons and funding to terrorist groups in the Middle East.
"What does providing financial assistance and weapons to terrorists in Syria, Lebanon and Iraq mean?" he asked.
Iran is supporting both Syrian President Bashar Assad and the Iraqi government in its fight against Sunni Muslim extremists, including Islamic State militants. Tehran says Saudi Arabia and several other Middle Eastern governments support the Islamic State.
Prominent lawmaker Alaeddin Boroujerdi, who heads the parliamentary national security and foreign policy committees, predicted that Saudi Arabia will find itself trapped in the Yemeni "quagmire."
"We are so sorry that today Saudi Arabia and [its allies] have placed themselves in a quagmire and leaving it will definitely not be an easy task," he told reporters Saturday.
Elsewhere Saturday, Militiamen loyal to Yemen's exiled President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi besieged an air base once crucial to the U.S. drone program targeting al-Qaida militants in the country, trying to dislodge the Shiite rebels holding the complex, a spokesman said.
Qa'ed Nasser, a spokesman for the pro-Hadi militia, said his fighters launched several attacks on the Al-Annad air base in Sanaa , Yemen, amid airstrikes by a Saudi-led coalition targeting the rebels, known as Houthis. He said that the Houthis have been forced to abandon parts of the base due to the attacks.
Houthi rebels declined to comment on the fighting at the base, about 35 miles from Aden, the port city where Hadi had established a temporary capital before fleeing the country.
The base was crucial in the U.S. drone campaign against al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, which the U.S. considers to be the most dangerous branch of the terror group. U.S. operations against the militants have been scaled back dramatically amid the chaos in Yemen.
U.S. officials have said CIA drone strikes will continue in the country, although there will be fewer of them. The agency's ability to collect intelligence on the ground in Yemen, while not completely gone, is also much diminished.
About 100 U.S. military advisers based at Al-Annad withdrew last month due to deteriorating security conditions.
Fighting continued across the country Saturday, with coalition airstrikes targeting positions of Houthis and their allies in several provinces, including Aden, Sanaa, Taiz, Marib, Saada, Shabwa and Lahj, security officials said.
Taiz saw particularly heavy bombardment a day earlier, including one strike on the Republican Palace that killed 19 pro-Houthi gunmen, they added, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief reporters. They said fighting there had left more than 85 dead over the past 24 hours.
Information for this article was contributed by Ahmed al-Haj of The Associated Press.
A Section on 04/19/2015