Houthis received help from Iran, others for dangerous weapons: UN

• The Houthis have a significant arsenal of weapons, including missiles and drones.
• The Yemeni rebels could not have done this without foreign help, according to a new UN report.
• The Houthis have used these weapons to attack ships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.

The Houthi rebels could not have amassed their dangerous arsenal of weapons without extensive help from Iran and its proxy forces in the Middle East, according to a new United Nations report.

In the lengthy report, delivered to the UN Security Council last month, a panel of experts concluded that Yemen-based Houthis have received training, weapons, technical assistance and financial support from Iran, Lebanese Hezbollah and armed Iraqi groups. .

The Houthis are behind a years-long campaign focused on the main trade routes in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. They have launched more than 130 attacks – mainly using missiles and drones – against commercial and Western naval vessels.

The rebels have hit a number of them commercial ships during their campaign, during which two of them were sunk and one was hijacked (almost a year later, the crew remains detained in Yemen). So far, four sailors have been killed as a result of the attacks.

The panel of experts said in their report that the Houthis have exploited the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza and through their attacks have sought to boost their status within Iran’s so-called “axis of resistance,” a group of proxy forces based around the Gaza Strip. strengthen. Middle East.

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The Houthis held a military parade in September 2023, during which the group had a formidable arsenal of anti-ship missiles, ballistic and cruise missiles, surface-to-air missiles, aerial drones, naval drones, speedboats, surveillance systems and mines.

However, the experts said the Houthis are unable to produce and develop such complex weapons without foreign assistance. They also said the rebels likely received external help in identifying, locating and attacking commercial ships, as many of them had disabled their automatic identification systems before entering the area.

“The scale, nature and scope of the transfer of various military equipment and technology provided to the Houthis from external sources, including financial support and training of their fighters, is unprecedented,” the experts wrote in their report.

US naval forces have repeatedly intercepted ships are trying to illegally smuggle weapons from Iran to the Houthis. One of those missions in January resulted in the seizure of parts for ballistic missiles and cruise missiles.

The Pentagon has done that maintained a naval presence in and around the Red Sea during the Houthi campaign, in which American warships did so routinely intercepted their missiles and drones. In addition, American troops have executed significant air raids against the rebels in Yemen.

The U.N. panel of experts said U.S. and British forces together destroyed more than 800 Houthi missiles and drones and disabled command posts, radars and weapons storage facilities.