On Monday January29th, US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley welcomed a group of UN Security Council ambassadors to Washington DC. Part of their time there was spent viewing parts of weapons and debris that is said to be proof that Iran has been meddling in the war in Yemen.
On Twitter, Haley said: “We brought the Security Council to DC to see first-hand evidence from the Department of Defense of Iran’s illegal weapons program. These violations cannot continue.”
The same weapons were also brought to attention last month when reporters were invited to view them. There are the remains of a ballistic missile (short-range), a drone and an anti-tank weapon. The missile was fired from Yemen towards the international airport just outside Saudi capital Riyadh.
When Haley initially revealed the weapons, she said: “These are Iranian made, these are Iranian sent, and these were Iranian given. You will see us build a coalition to really push back against Iran and what they’re doing.”
The Iranian foreign minister, Javad Zarif, refuted the claims that Iran is arming Houthi rebels in Yemen and accused the US of delivering fake news. He said: “In the fake news department, Trump & Co. attempt to create an Iranphobic narrative at the UN Security Council—through wining and dining and fake ‘evidence’ provided by a warring neighbor—that would pass muster with only the same desperate neighbor & its accomplices in war crimes.”
The “warring neighbour” he refers to is regional rival Saudi Arabia. The two nations have been in a power struggle for many years and the tension is intensifying. They are on opposite sides of the war in Yemen, with Saudi Arabia leading a coalition that is striving to reinstate the government of President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi who was ousted in early 2015 by Houthi rebels. Iran, on the other hand, is on the side of the Houthi rebels.
Iran, through the supply of weapons to Houthi rebels, is disregarding its international obligations and is fuelling the conflict in Yemen. The conflict there has turned into a humanitarian crisis and there is great pressure to put an end to the suffering there.
After the inspection of the weapons at Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling, the UN ambassadors went to the White House where they had lunch with President Trump. It has been reported that Trump used the occasion to convince the United Nations that urgent action must be taken against Iran.
One of the ambassadors that was in attendance agreed publicly with Haley, stating that there is evidence that Iran is arming Houthi rebels. In a message on Twitter, UK Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Ambassador Jonathan Allen, shared photos of the evidence on Twitter. The photos were accompanied by a message: “How and when did #Iran missiles get to #Yemen? Low-tech “field weld” (compared to “factory weld”) shows missiles cut in half, presumably for smuggling. Date stamp of 2015 shows supply after Yemen arms embargo.”
Source » ncr-iran