Iran ‘smuggling weapons’ to Yemen and elsewhere

Agencies | Washington

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

The United Nations found thousands of weapons recently seized in the Arabian Sea likely came from a single port in Iran, evidence Tehran is exporting arms to Yemen and elsewhere, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Yemen has been wracked by civil war since 2014, pitting Iran-backed Houthi militia against the internationally recognised government.

The UN imposed an arms embargo on the Houthis in 2015.

Citing a confidential report by a UN Security Council panel of experts on Yemen, the Journal wrote that boats and land transport were used to smuggle weapons made in Russia, China and Iran into Yemen.

The arms included rocket launchers, machine guns and sniper rifles, which had been seized by the US Navy in recent months.

Boats used to transport the weapons had left from the southeastern Iranian port of Jask, the UN report found, based on interviews with the boat crew and data from the onboard navigational instruments, the Journal said.

The militia’s deputy information minister denied Iran was smuggling weapons into Yemen, according to the Journal, and Tehran said the weapons were not sold or transported to the country.

The UN estimates Yemen’s war will have directly or indirectly killed 377,000 people by the end of the year.

More than 80 per cent of the population of around 30 million require humanitarian assistance.