The members of the Panel of Experts on Yemen stressed the need to intensify efforts to combat the smuggling of weapons from Iran to the Houthi militias.
Formed the United Nations Security Council, the Panel noted in its latest report that the “pattern of arms supplies to the Houthis remained largely unchanged during the reporting period: the majority of weapons, ammunition and related items were smuggled using traditional sailing vessels (dhows) and smaller boats in the Arabian Sea.”
“The Panel is investigating seven new cases of maritime smuggling, some of which involved the trafficking of fertilizer and other chemicals that have potential applications as precursors for manufacturing explosives and as an oxidizer for solid fuel propellants,” said the report.
“Unlike weapons and ammunition, which are usually transported to beaches in nominally government-controlled areas of south-eastern Yemen, the chemicals are smuggled through Djibouti to Houthi-controlled ports in the Red Sea,” it explained.
“The Panel is also investigating the smuggling of launch containers for anti-tank guided missiles, concealed inside a commercial truck, across the land border with Oman.”
“The Panel identified a network of Houthi-affiliated individuals in Yemen and Oman that recruits crew members, facilitates their movement across government-held territory and arranges vehicles and boats for them,” it said.
“The Panel maintains its long-held position that some of the seized weapons – such as the anti-tank guided missiles seized on the Omani border – have technical characteristics and markings consistent with those manufactured in Iran, while others, such as the assault rifles and ammunition seized in December 2021, are likely to originally have been supplied by other Member States to entities in the Iran,” it stressed.
In its recommendations, the Panel “called on Member States to increase efforts to combat the smuggling and trafficking of fertilizer and other chemicals that can be used by the Houthis as precursors for explosives, as oxidizer for solid fuel propellants or for other military purposes.”
It called on Member States “to increase efforts to combat the smuggling and trafficking of narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances to ensure the implementation of financial sanctions.”
It recommended it “to consider adopting appropriate legal instruments that would allow for the proper investigation of cases detected in international waters by international naval and coastguard forces so that the offenders can be brought to justice by the appropriate authorities.”
It urged Member States “to improve information-sharing on maritime seizures of arms, ammunition and related items with the Government of Yemen, international maritime forces operating in the Arabian Sea and the Red Sea and other parties concerned such as the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, to allow for the legal prosecution of detained smugglers in Yemen.”
The Panel called on Member States in the region “to improve information-sharing with the Government of Yemen on the seizure of arms, ammunition and related items, as well as individuals and entities on their territories engaged in smuggling and trafficking to the Houthis, to allow for the legal prosecution of detained smugglers in Yemen.”
Moreover, it called on the Houthis and Yemeni government to “cooperate with the United Nations and other stakeholders in the implementation of the safe salvage of the FSO Safer, aimed at preventing a potential environmental and humanitarian disaster in the Red Sea, Yemen and the region.”
It urged the parties to the Stockholm Agreement “to refrain from taking any action that would undermine the Agreement, and express its intention to impose sanctions on those who undertake any such acts.”
The British navy seized anti-tank missiles and fins for ballistic missile assemblies during a raid on a small boat heading from Iran likely to Yemen, authorities said Thursday, the latest such seizure in the Gulf of Oman.
The seizure by the Royal Navy comes after other seizures by French and US forces in the region in the past three months.
