US Confident Weapons Seized In Arabian Sea Were Iranian Supplies To Yemen - Pentagon

WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 20th February, 2020) The US military are confident that a large cache of sophisticated weaponry they intercepted earlier this month in the Arabian Sea was another Iranian attempt to supply the Houthi rebels in Yemen, a US Central Command spokesman William Urban told reporters.

"The United States assesses with high confidence that the weapons seized by... USS Normandy in February were manufactured in Iran and were being illicitly smuggled to the Houthis in Yemen in contravention of multiple UN Security Council resolutions," Urban said at a Pentagon briefing on Wednesday.

According to the US military, the cargo on board included three surface-to-air missiles, 150 anti-tank guided missiles, components for unmanned aerial and surface vessels, and thermal imaging weapon scopes.

"Some of these weapons were Iranian copies of Russian-made weapons and some were uniquely designed by Iran and found nowhere else in the world," Urban said. "The United States is confident that these weapons fit the pattern of weapon-smuggling to the Houthis in Yemen which Iran has been engaged in for at least five years."

He pointed to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as "the prime part" of Iranian weapons transfers in the middle East.

The crew of the vessel was interrogated and handed over to the Yemeni authorities, Urban added.

The US military noted the resemblance of the cargo seized in February to weaponry intercepted in the Arabian Sea last November by USS Forest Sherman, also presumably en route from Iran to the Houthi rebels in Yemen in violation of a UN Security Council resolution.