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SANAA (Reuters) - Yemen
confirmed on Saturday that a ship intercepted last month off its coast
was an Iranian vessel trying to smuggle explosives and surface-to-air
missiles to the country, the state news agency Saba reported.
Yemen says intercepted ship carrying weapons was Iranian
Reuters – 5 hrs ago
SANAA (Reuters) - Yemen
confirmed on Saturday that a ship intercepted last month off its coast
was an Iranian vessel trying to smuggle explosives and surface-to-air
missiles to the country, the state news agency Saba reported.
Officials in
Washington said earlier this week that the seizure of the ship on
January 23 had been coordinated with the U.S. Navy and that the
intercepted shipment was believed to have been from Iran and destined for insurgents, likely to be Shi'ite Muslim Houthi rebels mainly based in northern Yemen.
Saba quoted a source at Yemen's higher security
committee as saying the weapons including Russian-designed SAM 2 and SAM
3 anti-aircraft missiles, were hidden inside four containers concealed
by a diesel tank with a capacity of 100,000 liters."The source said that the ship, with its cargo, was handed over to eight Yemeni crew in Iran to deliver it to the Yemeni shores," Saba said.
The agency said the weapons were now being unloaded and sorted and the crew questioned.
"The results will be published after the contents of the ship are unloaded and sorted," it added.
Gulf Arab
governments and Sunni clerical allies accuse regional Shi'ite Muslim
power Iran of backing co-religionist communities around the region, and
Sanaa has also accused Iran of trying to meddle in Yemeni affairs.
Yemen's President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi snubbed a
visiting Iranian envoy last year to signal "displeasure" after Sanaa
said it uncovered an Iranian-led spy ring in the capital.
A U.S. official,
who spoke on condition of anonymity, said on Monday that the seizure of
the ship demonstrates "ever pernicious Iranian meddling in other
countries in the region".
Iran denies any interference in Yemen's affairs.
Analysts and
diplomats believe the Houthis, named after their leaders' family, have
turned Yemen into a new front in a long struggle between Iran and
Western powers and the Arab regimes they support.
Earlier in January,
the U.S. envoy to Yemen, Gerald Feierstein, was quoted as accusing Iran
of working with southern secessionists seeking to restore the country
that merged with North Yemen in 1990. Yemen is also grappling with an al Qaeda insurgency in the center and south of the country.
Its location flanking top oil producer Saudi Arabia -
Iran's Sunni Muslim regional adversary - and major shipping lanes have
made restoring its stability an international priority.
Yemen's government
said in a statement issued by the Yemeni embassy in Washington last
Monday that the shipment was intercepted in Yemeni waters, close to the
Arabian Sea. It said Yemeni Coast Guard officials boarded the vessel,
which flew multiple flags and had eight Yemeni crew members on board.
"Authorities are
continuing to investigate the vessel's shipping route by analyzing
navigation records found on board the ship," the statement said.
(Reporting by Mohammed Ghobari, writing by Sami Aboudi; Editing by Jason Webb)
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