Recently intercepted weapons shipments in the Arabian Sea appear to prove that Iran has been supplying the Houthi rebels in Yemen.
The weapons, seized by Australian, French and U.S. warships, were Russian and Iranian; some of them had markings similar to those used by the Houthi fighters according to an independent report.
The Conflict Armament Research (CAR) report gives us the most concrete evidence to date that Iran is supporting the Houthis.
Vice Admiral Kevin M. Donegan, the commander of U.S. Naval Forces in the region, announced that five weapons shipments had been seized since April 2015.
CAR’s report focuses on three shipments recovered in early 2016 by the crews of the HMAS Darwin, FS Provence, and USS Sirocco, who were operating as a part of a multinational Combined Maritime Force task force.
It states: “CAR’s analysis of the seized material … suggests the existence of a weapon pipeline extending from Iran to Somalia and Yemen, which involves the transfer, by dhow, of significant quantities of Iranian-manufactured weapons and weapons that plausibly derive from Iranian stockpiles.”
On one ship headed for Yemen, the French crew who searched the boat found around 2,000 Kalashnikov-style rifles with sequential serial numbers.
The CAR report noted that the rifles were “characteristic of Iranian manufacture” and were shipped alongside 64 Hoshdar-M sniper rifles also bearing sequential serial numbers, and nine Russian Kornet antitank guided weapons.
In February, the Austrailian ship intercepted a boat with 2,197 weapons including roughly 100 Iranian-made RPG-7-style rocket launchers, whilst in March, the American ship found over 1,500 rifles in addition to rocket launchers and 12.7mm heavy machine guns.
The findings are limited but the report suggests evidence of a weapons pipeline from Iran to Somalia and Yemen.
