TEHRAN, Feb. 27 (Xinhua) -- Iran's Foreign Ministry on Tuesday lauded Russia's veto of a Britain-drafted resolution accusing Iran of violating the UN arms embargo on Yemeni rebels, calling it a "defeat" for the United States.
Iran's Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Qasemi said in a statement that the resolution proposed by Britain "was blocked because of it being far from reality."
He said the Britain-drafted resolution "turned into another setback, particularly for the United States."
Qasemi added that the U.S. and British approaches at the UN Security Council in the past three years "have been unconstructive."
Instead of taking advantage of the UNSC as an international mechanism to resolve conflicts, Washington and London have used it merely to legitimize the aggressions and covering up the war crimes committed in Yemen, the spokesman said.
On Monday, Russia blocked in the UN Security Council a Britain-drafted resolution, which slammed Iran's "non-compliance" with the UN sanctions regime that embargoes arms to the Shiite Houthi militants in Yemen.
The council then put to vote the Russian-drafted text, which won unanimous support of the 15 members of the council. The Russian text was adopted as Resolution 2402, in which no reference was made to Iran.
Iran's Ambassador to the United Nations Gholamali Khoshroo said Tuesday that the Britain-drafted text aimed to cover up Saudi Arabia's crimes in Yemen.
Khoshroo rejected the allegations that the Islamic republic has violated the UN embargo.
On Tuesday, Qasemi urged the international community to help stop the "violence of foreign troops in Yemen and the massacre of thousands of innocent Yemenis."
He also blamed the United States and and Britain for what he called "playing a destructive role in Yemen ... by destabilizing the region through arming the Saudi-led coalition with modern weapons and arsenals."
Saudi Arabia has been leading a mostly Arab military coalition to fight the Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen since March 2015.
The Houthis have been controlling much of Yemen's north by force, including the capital Sanaa since 2014.
The war in Yemen has killed more than 10,000 Yemenis, mostly civilians, and displaced over 3 million others, according to humanitarian agencies.
The West and its regional allies have accused Iran of violating the UN arms ban on the militants in Yemen. Tehran has denied the allegations.
