Security Council Expert Group: The Houthis run an arms smuggling network in Yemen and Oman
English - Thursday 09 February 2023 الساعة 06:09 pm
Aden, NewsYemen:
The report of the UN Security Council Panel of Experts on Yemen confirmed that the Houthi militia operates a network in Yemen and Oman that leads arms smuggling operations through areas under the control of the Yemeni government, according to Talal Al-Hajj, correspondent of Al-Arabiya channel in New York.
Al-Hajj said, on his Twitter account, that the report of the international team of experts covers the period between December 2021 - March 2022, and it was distributed to all members of the Security Council about two weeks ago, and unusually in past years, everyone surrounded it with secrecy, as the United Nations did not publish a copy of the report, which it used to publish and declassify by the end of January every year.
He added that the report's language was strongly condemning the Houthis and their practices, indicating that the report held the Houthi militia responsible for the dire political, economic and humanitarian conditions in Yemen.
According to "Al-Hajj", the team of experts explained that "most of the weapons, ammunition and other related materials are smuggled to the Houthis using traditional "dhows" ships that sail using sails and wind power," and indicated that weapons are also smuggled using small ships in the Arabian Sea.
The Group of Experts indicated that it is currently investigating 7 new cases related to maritime smuggling operations, some of which include trading in fertilizers and chemicals that can be used in the manufacture of explosives and as a source of solid fuel that is used as a propellant for missiles.
The report stated - according to the source - that chemicals are smuggled through Djibouti to Yemeni ports overlooking the Red Sea under the control of the Houthis, and this is in contrast to the ways of smuggling weapons and ammunition that are usually transported to beaches nominally controlled by the government of Yemen, located in southeast Yemen.
According to the source, the team of experts is also investigating containers for launching anti-tank guided missiles, which are smuggled by hiding them in commercial transport trucks across the land borders between Yemen and Oman.
The team of experts indicated that it "was able to identify people belonging to a network closely related to the Houthis in Yemen and Oman, who recruit members of the smuggling crews, and also facilitate their movement through lands under the control of the Yemeni government, and provide them with vehicles and transport ships."
Al-Hajj mentioned that the Security Council's team of experts on Yemen said in the report: It is now paying great attention to accusations issued by several member states of the United Nations, that traditional smuggling ships, "dhows", get their cargo to be smuggled while anchored in Iranian ports.
He pointed out that "the team of Yemen experts now has the GPS coordinates obtained from navigational equipment and a drone found on one of the smuggling boats, confirming that the locations of the ports for shipping the materials to be smuggled are located in Iran, or near Iran.
He added that although the team of experts could not verify all the details of the accusations of the member states, the team noted that information provided by some crews of the smuggling ships when they were interrogated, after the detention of their ships - they noticed - that the information resulting from the interrogations confirms the details of the accusations leveled by the member states. Houthi.
The Group of Experts confirmed that some of the smuggled weapons, such as anti-tank guided missiles, after being discovered, detained and confiscated at the border with Oman, were found to have technical characteristics and markings identical to missiles manufactured in Iran.
Concerning the smuggled assault rifles and ammunition that were discovered and confiscated in December 2021, the experts report says that their source was mostly originally from another country, a member of the United Nations, and this country sent them to entities inside Iran.
