An Israeli official reveals the ways of smuggling Iranian weapons to Yemen
English - Tuesday 13 July 2021 الساعة 04:08 pm
Newsyemen, special translation:
A high-ranking Israeli defense official said that Iran views the ongoing attacks launched by its arm in Yemen (Houthi militia) on Saudi Arabia as an important "experimental laboratory" to test new types of combat weapons and its ideological doctrines that it wants to export to the region.
Colonel Shaul Shai, former deputy head of the Israeli National Security Council, told JNS, a website specializing in security and defense analysis, that the Houthis' military-terrorist capabilities are the result of Iranian support and supportive involvement of Hezbollah.
The Iran-backed Houthis also pose a threat to international shipping in the Red Sea, according to Shay.
"The main potential flashpoint when it comes to Houthi threats to navigation is the Red Sea and the narrow Bab al-Mandab Strait," he said, noting that the Houthis are equipped with a range of naval weapons, including anti-ship missiles (...) The threat is all over the Red Sea. ".
He added that even away from the Yemeni coast, the Houthis could use the "mother ship" - in reference to the Iranian ship Saviz - to launch attacks on ships in the depths of the Red Sea. The Houthis could also attempt an attack on Israeli ships or those they deem to be, if they saw an opportunity to do so.
The Houthi challenge to the region can be traced back to 2014, when the group began to spread out of its northern stronghold, as a Shiite minority in Yemen's turbulent political system made up of the majority of Sunni tribes.
JNS says that when Saudi Arabia realized that the Houthis were about to take over the rest of Yemen with Iran's help, it formed an alliance to suppress the Houthis' further advance.
"Since 2015 until today, the situation in Yemen has been partially stable," Shay said. The Houthis managed to preserve most of their gains and tried to expand again starting this year in an oil-producing region called Marib. The Hadi government, with the now smaller Arab coalition, was not strong enough to change the status quo.
In the face of the air supremacy of the Saudi-led Arab coalition, the Houthis and their Iranian patrons responded with missiles and drones frequently fired at Saudi Arabia.
The Iranians have smuggled a wide range of missiles into Yemen, including short-range, medium-range, and long-range projectiles. Iran also sent cruise missiles.
Shay reported that the UN arms embargo on arms sales to all parties to the Yemeni conflict is being imposed by US, Australian and French ships, but with limited success.
The Iranian arms smuggling plan first included the transfer of complete weapons to Yemen, with the weapons dismantled and reassembled by the Houthis with the help of trainers from Iran and Hezbollah.
In addition to smuggling off-the-shelf weapons, Shay said, Iran has also begun exporting technological know-how to the Houthis, in a similar way to how the factions in Gaza have learned to produce their own weapons.
Thus, in Yemen, there is now a growing infrastructure. Domestic drones and missile production capability.
Shay said the second smuggling route includes the smuggling of weapons by land to Yemen via Oman.
He added, "There is a third channel related to arms smuggling to Yemen through Somalia, and it is very close."
The weapons include some of the same attack systems seen in Hezbollah's arsenal, such as the C-802 anti-ship missile, which Hezbollah used to strike the Israeli navy's INS Hanit during the 2006 Second Lebanon War.
"The Houthis fired these same missiles at a Saudi warship and hit it," Shay said.
The use of armed, remote-activated explosive boats, is a tactic favored by the Houthis to strike civilian and Saudi coalition military vessels. Explosive, remote-controlled boats have also been used in attacks on Saudi ports.
“The Iranians supplied the Houthis with sea mines,” Shay said. “There have been a number of accidents in which naval ships have been exposed to such mines.
In response to the threat, according to Shay, it is necessary to target Iranian supply mechanisms and expose the Iranian regional threat of arming proxies "whether in Syria, Iraq, Lebanon or Yemen."
This is part of the Iranian strategy to become a regional hegemon. Hence, the first thing that should be done - mostly, by the United States and the international community - is to stop the Iranian activity of these militias. "Now is an opportunity to do that when dealing with Iran's nuclear program," he said, referring to nuclear talks between Tehran and world powers.
Shay said: "Yemen is far from us, and the Houthi threat seems far-fetched compared to Hezbollah and Hamas, but it does exist."
