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DUBAI, Feb. 2 (AP) — The French navy seized thousands of assault rifles, machine guns and anti-tank missiles from Iran in the Gulf of Oman earlier this month bound for Yemen, officials said Thursday. Houthi rebels, the latest such interception. A long war in the middle east countries.
While Iran did not immediately acknowledge the seizure, images of the weapons released by U.S. military Central Command showed they were similar to those seized by U.S. forces in other shipments back to Tehran.
The announcement came amid growing Western pressure on Iran over its delivery of drones to arm Russia during its war against Ukraine and months of violent crackdowns on protesters.
Regional tensions also rose after a suspected Israeli drone attack on a military workshop in the central Iranian city of Isfahan. Previous cycles of violence since the collapse of Iran’s nuclear deal with world powers have seen retaliatory attacks by the Islamic Republic at sea.
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The seizure took place on Jan. 15 in the Gulf of Oman, the waters that stretch from the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow entrance to the Persian Gulf, to the Arabian Sea and Indian Ocean. U.S. Central Command described the intercept as being conducted “along routes historically used to illicit arms trafficking from Iran to Yemen.”
A U.N. resolution bans arms transfers to Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels, who seized the country’s capital in late 2014 and have been with a Saudi-led coalition backing the country’s internationally recognized government since March 2015 fighting.
The Wall Street Journal, which first reported the seizure, identified the troops involved as elite French special forces. A regional official with knowledge of the intercept, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly about details of the operation, also pointed to the French for the seizure.
The French military did not respond to a request for comment on the weapons seized. U.S. Central Command did not immediately respond to questions about the seizure, nor did Iran’s mission to the United Nations. While France maintains a naval base in Abu Dhabi, it has generally taken a quieter approach in the region while maintaining a diplomatic presence in Iran.
Iran has long denied arming the Houthis, though Western countries, United Nations experts and others have tracked Tehran to weapons such as night-vision goggles, rifles and missiles. In November, the U.S. Navy said it had found 70 tons of missile fuel components in bags of fertilizer on a ship bound for Yemen from Iran. Houthi ballistic missiles have targeted Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates in the past.
Photos taken by U.S. Central Command on Wednesday and analyzed by The Associated Press showed an unidentified ship apparently docked in port with various weapons on board. These weapons appear to include Chinese-made Type 56 rifles, Russian-made Molot AKS20Us and PKM-type machine guns. All of these appeared among other weapons seizures attributed to Iran.
Central Command said the seized weapons included more than 3,000 rifles and 578,000 rounds of ammunition. The released images also showed 23 containers launching anti-tank missiles, which were also present in other shipments linked to Iran.
The war in Yemen has largely stalled and triggered one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises. However, according to the Yemen Data Project, Yemen has not recorded any Saudi-led airstrikes since the kingdom began a ceasefire in late March 2022.
The ceasefire expired in October, despite diplomatic efforts to restore it. This has led to fears that the war could escalate again. More than 150,000 people have been killed in fighting in Yemen, including more than 14,500 civilians. (Associated Press)
(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from a Syndicated News feed, the content body may not have been modified or edited by LatestLY staff)
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