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Detained Sailors Reveal Houthi Smuggling Routes from Iran to Yemen

Smuggled rockets that were part of a shipment of Iranian weapons seized by Yemeni forces in the Red Sea. (EPA)
Smuggled rockets that were part of a shipment of Iranian weapons seized by Yemeni forces in the Red Sea. (EPA)
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Detained Sailors Reveal Houthi Smuggling Routes from Iran to Yemen

Smuggled rockets that were part of a shipment of Iranian weapons seized by Yemeni forces in the Red Sea. (EPA)
Smuggled rockets that were part of a shipment of Iranian weapons seized by Yemeni forces in the Red Sea. (EPA)

Confessions by detained sailors have revealed the smuggling routes used by the Houthi militants in Yemen to smuggle weapons from Iran.

Yemeni forces arrested in July seven people on board a ship they intercepted in the Red Sea. The sailors revealed the details of a significant smuggling network run by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) that ran routes through Beirut, Damascus, Somalia and Djibouti to reach the Houthi-held ports of Hodeidah.

The confessions were aired by al-Joumhouriya television that is run by the Yemeni national resistance that is based on the western Yemeni coast.

Four sailors confessed to smuggling arms shipments from Iran’s Bandar Abbas port to Hodeidah. They have been identified as Amer Masawa, Ali Qassir, Issa Qassir and Abdullah Afifi.

Masawa revealed that a Houthi official in Hodeidah had tasked him back in 2023 to return a ship from Iran to Yemen. Masawa headed to Houthi-held Sanaa with others where they were granted passports. From there, they boarded a Yemenia Airways flight to the Jordanian capital Amman.

From there, they continued on to the Lebanese capital Beirut where a man in his 60s escorted them to an apartment that was ready to receive them. They remained there for three days before being transported by car to the Syrian capital Damascus and from there they flew to Tehran, Iran.

In Tehran, a man escorted the travelers to a Houthi camp run by leading Houthi member Mohammed al-Talebi. Yemeni authorities identify him as a Houthi representative of the smuggling network from Iran.

After ten days in Tehran, they were flown to Bandar Abbas city where they stayed in a villa owned by Talebi who explained to them their mission. Soon after, they were joined by ten Somali sailors.

Oman route

The second sailor, Ali Qassir, recalled how he was recruited by people affiliated with a Houthi official at Hodeidah’s al-Salif port, Hussein al-Attas, to bring a ship from Iran to Yemen.

Ali Qassir and others were taken to the Jowf province east of Sanaa where they met with another smuggler who escorted them along a desert route through Jawf, Marib and Hadramawt to the al-Mahra province bordering Oman.

At the Sarfait border crossing, a smuggler escorted them to Oman where another person took them to Salalah city. Three days later, they were transported to Muscat where they were flown to Bandar Abbas.

They were taken to a camp run by the Houthis and where they joined their fellow sailors, as well as the ten Somalis. Talebi then set about explaining their missions.

Issa Qassir, Ali’s brother, said they were divided into two groups to sail with the illegal cargo back to Yemen. They were informed that they were transporting children’s toys, power generators and boxes of cancer treatment, which they were instructed must remain refrigerated.

As they sailed off the Omani coast, their vessel broke down. They contacted Omani authorities that transported them to Muscat, where they stayed for ten days until the ship was repaired, after which they headed to Yemen.

A third sailor said the people on the ship were unaware of the true nature of the cargo they were carrying, assuming it was battering and construction equipment. The coastguard eventually stopped their vessel and boarded it to discover the illegal shipment that included rockets and other weapons.

Further confessions revealed that the IRGC used three smuggling routes from Iran. The first was a direct route from Bandar Abbas to al-Salif, the second ran through Somalia and the third through Djibouti to al-Salif.

The sailors revealed that international patrols in the Gulf of Aden and Red Sea never intercepted their vessels. While sailing at night, they would cross the Bab al-Mandeb Strait and sail west of the international shipping route to avoid detection by Yemen’s coastguard and national resistance.

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Arab World

Algerian Parliament Approves Death Penalty for Arson, Child Abduction

Lawmakers vote on a bill to amend the penal code. (Algerian Parliament)
Lawmakers vote on a bill to amend the penal code. (Algerian Parliament)
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Algerian Parliament Approves Death Penalty for Arson, Child Abduction

Lawmakers vote on a bill to amend the penal code. (Algerian Parliament)
Lawmakers vote on a bill to amend the penal code. (Algerian Parliament)

Algeria’s National People’s Assembly approved a bill on Thursday expanding the death penalty for arson and crimes against children, drawing opposition warnings about the irreversible consequences of judicial error.

The amendments to the penal code, passed by a large majority, provide for capital punishment for deliberately setting fire to forests and property, and for child abductions followed by murder or brutal abuse.

The measures aim to strengthen legal deterrence and protect society.

The government secured passage with support from lawmakers in the “presidential majority” — parties that back President Abdelmadjid Tebboune’s policies: the National Liberation Front, the Democratic National Rally, the Future Front and the National Construction Movement.

Islamist lawmakers from the Movement of Society for Peace, the Ennahda Movement and the Justice and Development Front also backed the bill on religious grounds, despite being in opposition.

Lawmakers from the Workers’ Party, the Socialist Forces Front and the Rally for Culture and Democracy voted against it. Their small numbers gave them little sway over the outcome.

Justice Minister Lotfi Boudjemaa attended the vote after presenting the bill to the assembly last Monday.

Tougher penalties, renewed debate

The bill, which has stirred considerable controversy in Algeria, contains eight articles, including new provisions on arson, attacks on property and child abduction.

Among the toughest is Article 395 bis, which prescribes the death penalty for “anyone who deliberately sets fire to forests, scrubland, fields, whether cultivated or uncultivated, trees or sections of forest.”

It also covers timber stored in piles or bundles within forest areas.

Article 396 bis 1 extends capital punishment to “the deliberate burning of any property, public or private” when committed “for the benefit of a foreign state or foreign entity, in connection with treason, collusion with the enemy or membership in an organized criminal group.”

Article 396 bis 2 targets anyone who “incites, encourages, finances, organizes or facilitates these acts,” including acts committed or incited through social media.

For crimes against children, Article 291 prescribes the death penalty for “anyone who abducts a child, tortures a child, sexually assaults a child or amputates one of a child’s limbs,” notwithstanding any conflicting penalty under existing legislation.

Those convicted of any of these crimes cannot benefit from mitigating circumstances, further tightening the penalties.

The government proposed the amendments in direct response to devastating fires that swept through parts of eastern Algeria this summer, killing dozens of people. The killing of children after their abduction has also become alarmingly more prevalent in recent years.

“Justice should not respond to death with death”

The opposition warned that the law could turn the judiciary into “an instrument of revenge,” instead of protecting victims’ rights and helping them secure redress while safeguarding defendants’ rights and guaranteeing a fair trial.

“We believe that true justice should not respond to death with death,” said Mohammed Abdoussi, a lawmaker from the Rally for Culture and Democracy.

“No one has the right to take another person’s life, and the state and the judiciary are no exception to this principle,” he told parliament in remarks reported by the media.

“Our position on the death penalty is therefore clear and rooted in principle, and we have expressed it on many occasions.”

He said his parliamentary group had proposed abolishing the death penalty and replacing it with life imprisonment in 2008.

During debate on the bill, the group raised the tragedy of the 2021 fires in Kabylie and the killing of Djamel Ben Ismail, who was brutally attacked after local residents wrongly accused him of starting the fires.

“Following this crime, 48 people were sentenced to death, before the number of death sentences was reduced to 38 on appeal,” Abdoussi said.

“This raises a crucial question: Had the initial sentences been carried out, 10 additional people could have lost their lives on the basis of rulings that were subsequently changed.”

“This example demonstrates the danger of a punishment that cannot be reversed once carried out,” he added. “Human justice, however accurate, remains susceptible to error, while a death sentence cannot be corrected after it has been carried out.”

Arab World

Syria, Hezbollah Exchange Messages to Ease Security Tensions through Turkish Mediation

Hezbollah supporters carry Lebanese and Hezbollah flags during a commemoration marking the second anniversary of the assassination of the group’s former secretary-general, Hassan Nasrallah (EPA)
Hezbollah supporters carry Lebanese and Hezbollah flags during a commemoration marking the second anniversary of the assassination of the group’s former secretary-general, Hassan Nasrallah (EPA)
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Syria, Hezbollah Exchange Messages to Ease Security Tensions through Turkish Mediation

Hezbollah supporters carry Lebanese and Hezbollah flags during a commemoration marking the second anniversary of the assassination of the group’s former secretary-general, Hassan Nasrallah (EPA)
Hezbollah supporters carry Lebanese and Hezbollah flags during a commemoration marking the second anniversary of the assassination of the group’s former secretary-general, Hassan Nasrallah (EPA)

Security issues dominated secret Turkish-mediated talks between Hezbollah and Syria, during which the two sides exchanged messages aimed at easing tensions.

Hezbollah offered assurances that it would stay out of Syria’s security and military affairs and refrain from supporting groups affiliated with the former government, in return for a Syrian pledge not to intervene militarily in Lebanon as part of any plan to disarm the group there.

Reuters cited six sources familiar with the matter as saying representatives of the Syrian government and Lebanon’s Hezbollah held direct talks in Türkiye in an effort to ease tensions.

It described the meeting as the first known encounter of its kind between the two longtime adversaries.

While Hezbollah has kept silent on the matter, Lebanese sources familiar with the group’s activities told Asharq Al-Awsat that this was the second meeting.

An initial encounter to “break the ice” took place in Istanbul on the sidelines of the “Pledge for Jerusalem Conference,” hosted by Türkiye last December.

Hezbollah’s delegation was led by Ammar al-Moussawi, the group’s official responsible for Arab and international relations.

“Türkiye is continuing to mediate between the two sides, and contacts through Türkiye intensified after US President Donald Trump’s threats that Damascus could carry out the task of disarming Hezbollah,” the sources said, referring to remarks in which he said Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa could accomplish the task.

The sources said the second meeting, reported by Reuters, took place in Türkiye during the first 10 days of September. No Hezbollah security or military officials attended, they added.

The two meetings “do not amount to negotiations or understandings, but fall within the framework of messages exchanged between the two sides through Turkish mediation,” the sources said.

Security priorities

Security issues top both sides’ priorities amid concerns, including Syrian fears that Hezbollah could support remnants of the former government or seek to reactivate the southern Syrian front against Israel.

Hezbollah has repeatedly denied in statements that it intervenes in Syrian affairs or supports any groups in southern Syria.

The sources said Türkiye “worked to address the fears previously raised by President Trump’s remarks about Syrian intervention inside Lebanon against Hezbollah, and provided assurances of no interference whatsoever in Lebanese affairs, in return for assurances from Hezbollah that it would stay entirely out of the Syrian arena, refrain from obstructing security measures along the border with Lebanon, and pledge not to provide support of any kind to groups affiliated with the former government.”

They said Hezbollah “publicly affirms that it is staying entirely out of the Syrian arena and is not intervening there in any way, maintaining its focus on Lebanon.”

Effort to ease tensions

Those accounts align with what Reuters reported from its sources, who included two Syrian officials, a US official and a senior Lebanese security source close to Hezbollah.

The six sources said the meeting took place last month at the invitation of Türkiye’s security and intelligence services in an effort to reduce tensions.

It brought together Hezbollah representatives and officials from Syria’s intelligence services and Foreign Ministry.

The Syrian Foreign Ministry, Türkiye’s foreign and defense ministries, and the US State Department did not respond to Reuters’ questions about the meeting. Hezbollah’s media office declined to comment.

Both Hezbollah and the Syrian government had signaled openness to talks.

Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shibani said in July that Damascus was open to meeting the group. A month later, Hezbollah Secretary-General Naim Qassem said in a televised address that the group had no objection to meeting Syria’s leadership.

Resolving points of tension

The US official, the two Syrian officials and the Lebanese source said the meeting focused on resolving points of tension between the two sides and went well.

One Syrian official said the two sides agreed there was no hostility between them, and Syria assured Hezbollah it would not intervene militarily in Lebanon to disarm the group.

The official said Syrian representatives, in turn, asked Hezbollah to help halt cross-border smuggling attempts and dismantle its remaining sleeper cells, particularly in southern Syria.

According to Reuters, the Syrian official said Hezbollah’s representatives did not directly respond to the request to halt arms smuggling and dismantle its cells in Syria, but pledged not to interfere in Syrian affairs.

The Lebanese source, who had direct knowledge of the meeting and its outcome, said the two sides “made significant progress on security issues.”

“Hezbollah wants to protect its rear,” the source said, referring to fears of a Syrian attack on the group inside Lebanon.

Both the Syrian official and the Lebanese source said no final agreement was reached and there was no plan to issue an announcement. The Lebanese source said contacts between the two sides through Türkiye began about two months ago.

Iran absent from meeting

Three of the sources said Türkiye, a key ally of Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, pushed for the meeting because it wanted to be directly involved in those efforts. Iran, Hezbollah’s main backer, was absent from the meetings.

The Lebanese security source said Hezbollah attended with Iran’s knowledge, but Tehran was disappointed that it was not directly involved and that Sharaa has so far rejected the idea of establishing any direct relations with it.

That disappointment was the main reason no final agreement was reached and no announcement was made about the meeting, the source said.

Arab World

Egypt Warns of Israeli Attempts to Impose New Reality at Al-Aqsa Mosque

Egypt stressed the need to preserve the historical and legal status of Jerusalem’s holy sites and protect Al-Aqsa Mosque’s religious standing (Reuters)
Egypt stressed the need to preserve the historical and legal status of Jerusalem’s holy sites and protect Al-Aqsa Mosque’s religious standing (Reuters)
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Egypt Warns of Israeli Attempts to Impose New Reality at Al-Aqsa Mosque

Egypt stressed the need to preserve the historical and legal status of Jerusalem’s holy sites and protect Al-Aqsa Mosque’s religious standing (Reuters)
Egypt stressed the need to preserve the historical and legal status of Jerusalem’s holy sites and protect Al-Aqsa Mosque’s religious standing (Reuters)

Egypt warned that repeated Israeli incursions into Al-Aqsa Mosque “aim to change the status quo and impose a new reality within the holy site.”

In a Foreign Ministry statement on Thursday, Egypt condemned the entry of hundreds of Israeli settlers into the mosque and the accompanying provocative acts and religious rituals in its courtyards, saying they violated its historical and legal status quo.

Egypt stressed the need to preserve the historical and legal status of Jerusalem’s holy sites and protect Al-Aqsa Mosque’s religious standing.

It said maintaining existing arrangements governing the holy sites was crucial to preventing escalation, warning that repeated violations were fueling tensions.

Cairo said “these practices are part of a systematic policy that evades all forms of deterrence or accountability,” warning of consequences for security and stability in the occupied Palestinian territories and across the region.

The Arab League on Thursday condemned the entry of more than 1,300 Israeli settlers into Al-Aqsa Mosque on the fifth day of the Jewish holiday of Sukkot.

It also condemned the accompanying public religious rituals and prayers in the mosque’s courtyards under Israeli police protection, as well as restrictions on Palestinian worshippers and obstruction of their access.

It said: “The growing scale and frequency of these incursions, and the accompanying attempts to impose religious rituals inside the mosque, constitute a flagrant assault on its sanctity and a systematic effort to change its historical and legal status quo, imposing facts on the ground that pave the way for dividing it by time and space.”