Yemeni security forces bust Houthi-affiliated cell

Security forces in Yemen’s west coast have busted a cell affiliated with the Iran-backed Houthi militia for smuggling weapons from Iran, Yemen’s Joint Forces said on Friday.

The cell consisted of four Yemenis who all hail from Abu Zahr area, north of al-Khawkhah district in the governorate of Hodeida.

A video posted by the Joint Forces on Saturday showed the men confess to smuggling weapons from Iran’s Port of Bandar Abbas through another smuggler who works for the Houthis in Hodeida.

They also said that smuggling operations were supervised by experts from Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.

Yemeni Information Minister Moammar al-Iryani said the confessions “confirm that Tehran continues to supply the Houthi militia with weapons,” adding that this represents a flagrant violation of international law and UN Security Council resolutions which pertain to Yemen’s conflict.

“The confessions confirm Iran’s role in undermining the truce’s efforts and [show] that Iran uses the Houthi militia to kill Yemenis, destabilize Yemen and spread chaos and terrorism in the region,” al-Iryani said on Twitter.

He also accused the Houthis of using the UN-brokered Stockholm Agreement – reached in 2018 – to use the ports in Hodeida to smuggle Iranian weapons.

Al-Iryani called on the international community and the UN to clearly condemn the Iranian regime’s “sabotaging policies” and to exert “real pressure to end its interference in Yemen’s affairs and put an end to smuggling weapons to the terrorist Houthi militia.”