Pompeo says U.S. seized Iranian weapons on way to Houthi rebels in Yemen
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced on Wednesday that U.S. and partner forces seized a boat in June carrying Iranian weapons to Houthi rebels in Yemen as he renewed his call for the U.N. Security Council to extend an arms embargo on Iran, Reuters reported.
“The Security Council must extend the arms embargo on Iran to prevent further conflict in the region,” Pompeo told a State Department news conference. “No serious person can possibly believe Iran will use any weapon it receives for peaceful ends.”
Pompeo is leading a U.S. drive to persuade the Security Council to extend the embargo due to expire in mid-October under the terms of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal from which the United States withdrew in 2018.
He took his appeal directly to the council last week, with an address to its 15 members. But veto-wielding Russia and China signaled their opposition to an extension.
At his news conference, Pompeo said that U.S. and unidentified “partner” forces interdicted a vessel off Yemen’s coast on June 28 that was carrying Iranian arms to Houthi rebels.
“Iran is not abiding by the U.N. arms embargo that is due to expire in less than four months now,” he said.
The weapons, he said, included 200 rocket-propelled grenades, more than 1,700 assault rifles, 21 surface-to-air and land-attack missiles, several anti-tank missiles “and other advanced weapons and missiles.”
Iran-aligned Houthi rebels have been fighting the Yemeni government, backed by a Saudi-led coalition, since 2015.
Pompeo noted that a report by U.S. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres last week confirmed U.S. charges that weapons seized by U.S. forces in November 2019 and February 2020 were “of Iranian origin.”
Iran’s mission to the United Nations said there were “serious flaws, inaccuracies and discrepancies” in Guterres’s report.
Armenia, Azerbaijan FMs to meet in Kazakhstan
29 April 2024 / 13:40
Aram I: Mr. Erdogan, our ancestors were massacred by your ancestors, don't try to oppose diaspora to Armenia
24 April 2024 / 14:20
Azerbaijan and Armenia start border delimitation process
23 April 2024 / 11:38
Armenia premier: Our society asks why we continue to be member state of CSTO?
23 April 2024 / 11:30
Ilham Aliyev on his way to Moscow for talks with Vladimir Putin
22 April 2024 / 10:39
German Foreign Ministry reacts to agreement between Armenia and Azerbaijan on border delimitation
22 April 2024 / 10:32
Is Pashinyan going to attend Putin's inauguration?
17 April 2024 / 14:40
Russian peacekeepers’ pulling out from Nagorno-Karabakh has begun, Kremlin confirms
17 April 2024 / 14:34
Tokayev: Kazakhstan ready to offer platform for Armenia-Azerbaijan negotiations
15 April 2024 / 13:37
U.S. refuses to join Israel in retaliatory action against Iran
15 April 2024 / 11:33
Olivier Decottignies: France is providing Armenia military gear everyone’s desperate to get
09 April 2024 / 13:58
Ruben Vardanyan nominated for Nobel Peace Prize
08 April 2024 / 13:48
Serzh Sargsyan says Armenia-EU-US meeting will intensify Russia-West confrontation
05 April 2024 / 14:17
Pashinyan-Blinken-von der Leyen meeting underway in Brussels
05 April 2024 / 14:08
Aliyev expressed to Blinken Baku's dissatisfaction with the US-EU-Armenia trilateral meeting
04 April 2024 / 12:39