UK reveals Royal Navy seizure of smuggled Iranian missiles

A British Royal Navy vessel has seized a sophisticated shipment of Iranian missiles in the Gulf of Oman earlier this year, officials say, pointing to the interdiction as proof of Tehran’s support for Yemen’s Houthi rebels in the embattled country.

The British government statement is striking in that it provided some of the strongest findings to date that Tehran is arming the Houthis against the Saudi-led military coalition with advanced weapons smuggled through the Persian Gulf.

The UK Embassy in the United Arab Emirates described the seizure of surface-to-air-missiles and engines for land attack cruise missiles as “the first time a British naval warship has interdicted a vessel carrying such sophisticated weapons from Iran.”

Iran’s mission to the United Nations does not respond to a request for comment. The route of the smuggled shipments through the Arabian Sea or Gulf of Aden, however, has strongly suggested their destination.

Despite a United Nations Security Council arms embargo on Yemen, Iran has long been suspected of transferring rifles, rocket-propelled grenades, missiles and other weaponry to the Houthis since the disastrous war began in 2015. Iran denies arming the Houthis, independent experts, Western nations and U.N. experts have traced components back to Iran.

The Houthis seized Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, in September 2014 and forced the internationally recognized government into exile. A Saudi-led coalition armed with U.S. weaponry and intelligence joined the war on the side of Yemen’s exiled government in March 2015.