Iran using new route to arm Yemen’s Houthis

Iran is using new routes to arm Yemen’s Houthi armed group, Al-Sharq Aawsat newspaper reported.

The Iranian Revolutionary Guards are shipping money, batteries, weapons and drugs to support the Houthis in Yemen through waterways between Kuwait and Iran, the paper said. Smaller boats are used by the Iranians to avoid detection. The cargo is also often picked up by passing vessels.

The Saudi-led coalition has been monitoring the Red Sea off the coast of Yemen for any shipments of arms to the Houthis since March 2015.

Read: Iran’s leader lashes out at Trump, Saudis for anti-Tehran alliance

In April, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson stated that the Saudi-led coalition uncovered and “revealed a complex Iranian network to arm and equip the Houthis”.

Yemen’s President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi invited the Saudi-led coalition to push back military advancements against the Iranian-backed Houthi armed group in 2015.