As the United Nations and the US President Donald Trump welcomed the Riyadh Agreement Iran claimed that the deal would not solve the Yemen crisis and its problems. The Riyadh Agreement saw Yemen's internationally recognized government signing a power-sharing deal with Southern Transitional Council (STC) Tuesday, in a Saudi-brokered initiative to end a conflict simmering within the country's civil war. The Riyadh Agreement, hailed as a stepping stone towards ending the wider conflict, would see the government's return to Aden and the formation of a new Cabinet of 24 ministers with equal representation for southerners, including the STC. The deal drew praise from US President Donald Trump, who tweeted: "A very good start! Please all work hard to get a final deal." The United Nations special envoy for Yemen, Martin Griffiths, said the deal would propel efforts to end the wider civil war that has devastated the country. But Iran put a spoke in the welcome deal with their statement to the contrary on Wednesday. "The Riyadh Agreement between (Abd Rabbo Mansour) Hadi's government and the STC is incomplete and will not solve the Yemen crisis and its problems," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement cited by the official IRNA news agency. "The Yemeni people will not allow foreign forces to occupy southern Yemen," it said. Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi said the agreement "does not provide any support to solve the problems in Yemen." The ministry said the first step toward solving the five-year conflict in Yemen is reaching a ceasefire between the country's warring rivals. "The next step for the solution in Yemen is to hold a Yemeni-Yemeni dialogue to reach an agreement on the political future of Yemen," it said. —Agencies
