US secretary of state John Kerry has warned Iran over its alleged backing of Houthi rebels in Yemen.
Mr Kerry said on Wednesday that the United States was well aware of the support that Iran has been providing to Houthi forces who have driven Yemeni president Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi out of the country.
He said the United States would support countries in the Middle East who feel threatened by Iran.
“We’re not looking for confrontation, obviously, but we’re not going to step away from our alliances and our friendships and the need to stand with those who feel threatened as a consequence of the choices that Iran might be making,” Mr Kerry said in an interview with PBS Newshour.
The US has been supporting a Saudi-led coalition seeking to defend Mr Hadi against the Houthis. More than 500 people have died in the recent conflict.
President Barack Obama has recently been attempting to sell a proposed nuclear accord with Iran, which has come in for criticism.
Iran, which denies arming the Houthis, has condemned the Saudi-led offensive against them. Tehran sent two warships to the Gulf of Aden yesterday, saying they would protect Iranian shipping.
Houthi forces fought street-by-street battles with local militia in the old centre of Aden on Wednesday, as the first boatloads of emergency medical aid reached the south Yemeni port city, which relief workers say faces a humanitarian catastrophe.
Residents saw several bodies strewn on the streets and said several buildings were burnt or demolished by rocket fire. Mosques broadcast appeals for jihad against the Houthis.
The Houthi attack in the central Crater neighbourhood, backed by tanks and armoured vehicles, was at least partially repelled, residents said, and Houthi gunmen were also driven from some northern neighbourhoods.
Aden has been the target of a three-week-old assault by the Shia Muslim fighters, who control the capital, Sanaa. Their campaign prompted Tehran’s rival Saudi Arabia and its allies to launch air strikes against the Houthis.
Saudi Arabia’s leading role against the Houthis has turned Yemen into the latest theatre of a regional proxy conflict between the Gulf’s leading Sunni Muslim and Shia Muslim powers – a struggle also playing out in Syria, Lebanon and Iraq.
Agencies