How Iranian weapons are smuggled to the Houthis - report

The governor of an area in Yemen has “revealed” how Iranian weapons arrive by sea to the Iranian-backed Houthis in Yemen, according to an article at Al-Ain in the UAE. This is important because the Gulf Cooperation Council has been discussing the Houthi threat to shipping and Gulf Yemen ties in recent days. The Houthis have also increased their attacks on shipping.

According to the report, ships enter Houthi-controlled ports in Yemen without inspection. The report also says there is “renewed talk about the flow of Iranian weapons to the port of Hodeidah.” The report says that the Yemen government, which is the legitimate government of Yemen as compared to the Houthis, who are rebels, has confirmed and monitored the “movement of Iranian ships directly from the port of Bandar Abbas to the port of Hodeidah recently, while the British government documented the entry of 500 ships over the past eight months, and for the first time since 2016, into ports controlled by the Houthis without being subject to the UN inspection mechanism.”

The UN was supposed to implement a resolution that bans smuggling of weapons to the Houthis, the report notes. Considering the role of the UN in Gaza and in Lebanon, where the UN watched as Hamas and Hezbollah became exponentially more powerful, the role of the UN in Yemen watching arms flow to the Houthis should not be surprising.  

“The governor of Hodeidah in the internationally recognized government, Al-Hassan Taher, confirmed that ships coming from Iran, carrying various quantities of weapons, had already arrived at the vital port controlled by the Houthi militias, without being inspected by the mechanism,” the Al-Ain report notes. The governor said that the Iranian ships are loaded with weapons and they arrive in a dangerous manner to Hodeidah, violating UN Security Council resolution 2216. READ MORE