Amid mounting fears of the ongoing transfer of smuggled Iranian arms to Houthi militias, the Yemeni legitimate government called upon the UN Security Council Monday to extend an arms embargo on Iran, set to expire after two months.
“We warn against lifting the embargo on sale, supply, and transfer of arms and military industry to Iran,” Information Minister in the Yemeni caretaker government Muammar al-Eryani said.
He explained that the extension of the UN arms embargo would be a crucial step to force Iran to abandon its hostile and expansionist agenda and spread of terrorism through the Persian state's proxy militias in the region.
"Lifting the Iran arms embargo will be a gift to spread chaos and terrorism in the region and provide Iran with the opportunity to continue to provide financial resources to expand its sabotage activities, threaten security and stability of the region and the world, and to thwart peace efforts," Eryani said.
The minister said that since the Khomeni's revolution, Iranians have been exporting their 'revolution', imposing control on new countries through sectarian militias, and spreading terrorist religious ideology.
"Yemen, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and the whole region and world have paid hefty prices for the hostile policies that the Iranian regime and Revolutionary Guards Corps adopt," he said in a statement to Saba.
The United Nations arms embargo on Iran expires on 18 October in accordance with the Iran nuclear deal or the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, signed in 2015. The US quit the deal in 2018.
According to Eryani, resuming arms supply from and to Iran will add fuel to the fire.
“Iran will then continue to send weapons to sectarian militias and terrorist networks in the region, on top of which are the Houthis, Hezbollah, and ISIS, to threaten energy resources and international waterways,” he said.
The same demand was echoed Monday by the National Alliance of Yemeni Political Forces (NAYPF), which includes more than 10 parties backing the country's legitimate government.
The Parties sent a similar request to the Security Council in the name of the Yemeni people, calling for the need to extend the arms embargo on the Iranian regime.
“The Alliance is following up discussions at the Security Council concerning the repercussions of allowing Iran to violate UNSC Resolutions and to continuously challenge the international community by sending arms to Houthi militias,” it said.
NAYPF welcomed the June 2020 report published by UN Secretary General Antonio Gueterres about the implementation of SC Resolution 2231.
Last February, the US said it intercepted hundreds of missiles, weapons, and munitions likely headed from Iran to Houthi militants in Yemen during an operation in the Arabian Sea.
