{"id":6724,"date":"2017-01-11T20:40:15","date_gmt":"2017-01-12T01:40:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.irandemocratic.org\/public_html\/news\/?p=6724"},"modified":"2017-01-11T20:40:15","modified_gmt":"2017-01-12T01:40:15","slug":"arms-seized-off-coast-of-yemen-appear-to-have-been-made-in-iran","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.irandemocratic.org\/public_html\/news\/6724\/","title":{"rendered":"Arms Seized Off Coast of Yemen Appear to Have Been Made in Iran"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"story-body-supplemental\">\n<div class=\"story-body story-body-1\">\n<figure id=\"attachment_6725\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-6725\" style=\"width: 687px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-6725\" src=\"https:\/\/www.irandemocratic.org\/public_html\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/11Yemen1-master675-300x199.jpg\" alt=\"11Yemen1-master675\" width=\"687\" height=\"456\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.irandemocratic.org\/public_html\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/11Yemen1-master675-300x199.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.irandemocratic.org\/public_html\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/11Yemen1-master675-272x182.jpg 272w, https:\/\/www.irandemocratic.org\/public_html\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/11Yemen1-master675.jpg 675w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 687px) 100vw, 687px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-6725\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">Weapons seized in February from smugglers near Yemen\u2019s coast. Credit Australian Department of Defense, via Small Arms Survey<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h6 class=\"byline-dateline\"><span style=\"color: #333399;\"><span class=\"byline\">News Source: The New York times, By <span class=\"byline-author\" data-byline-name=\"C. J. CHIVERS\">C. J. CHIVERS<\/span> and <\/span><span class=\"byline\"><span class=\"byline-author\" data-byline-name=\"ERIC SCHMITT\" data-twitter-handle=\"EricSchmittNYT\">ERIC SCHMITT- <\/span><\/span><time class=\"dateline\" datetime=\"2017-01-11T00:38:23-05:00\">JAN. 10, 2017<\/time><\/span><\/h6>\n<p class=\"story-body-text story-content\" data-para-count=\"318\" data-total-count=\"318\">Photographs recently released by the Australian government show that light anti-armor weapons seized from a smuggling vessel near <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/topic\/destination\/yemen?8qa\">Yemen<\/a>\u2019s coast appear to have been manufactured in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/topic\/destination\/iran?8qa\">Iran<\/a>, further suggesting that Tehran has had a hand in a high-seas gunrunning operation to the Horn of Africa and the Arabian Peninsula.<\/p>\n<p class=\"story-body-text story-content\" data-para-count=\"454\" data-total-count=\"772\">The weapons, a selection of at least nine rocket-propelled grenade launchers, were among thousands of weapons seized by an Australian warship, the Darwin, in February from an Iranian dhow that was sailing under the name Samer. The photographs of the weapons, a sample of the much larger quantity of arms, were obtained by the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.smallarmssurvey.org\/\">Small Arms Survey<\/a>, a Geneva-based international research center, after a long open-records dispute with the Australian military.<\/p>\n<p class=\"story-body-text story-content\" data-para-count=\"536\" data-total-count=\"1308\"><a class=\"meta-loc\" title=\"More news and information about Iran.\" href=\"http:\/\/topics.nytimes.com\/top\/news\/international\/countriesandterritories\/iran\/index.html?inline=nyt-geo\">Iran<\/a> has been repeatedly accused of providing arms helping to fuel one side of the war in <a class=\"meta-loc\" title=\"More news and information about Yemen.\" href=\"http:\/\/topics.nytimes.com\/top\/news\/international\/countriesandterritories\/yemen\/index.html?inline=nyt-geo\">Yemen<\/a>, in which rebels from the country\u2019s north, known as the Houthis, ousted the government from the capital, Sana, in 2014. The United States and other Western governments have provided vast quantities of weapons, and other forms of military support, to the embattled government and its allies in a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2016\/10\/10\/world\/middleeast\/yemen-saudi-arabia-military.html?action=click&amp;amp;contentCollection=Middle%20East&amp;amp;module=RelatedCoverage&amp;amp;region=Marginalia&amp;amp;pgtype=article\">coalition led by <\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2016\/10\/10\/world\/middleeast\/yemen-saudi-arabia-military.html?action=click&amp;amp;contentCollection=Middle%20East&amp;amp;module=RelatedCoverage&amp;amp;region=Marginalia&amp;amp;pgtype=article\">Saudi A<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2016\/10\/10\/world\/middleeast\/yemen-saudi-arabia-military.html?action=click&amp;amp;contentCollection=Middle%20East&amp;amp;module=RelatedCoverage&amp;amp;region=Marginalia&amp;amp;pgtype=article\">rabia<\/a>, contributing to violence that the United Nations said last year had caused more than 10,000 civilian casualties.<\/p>\n<p class=\"story-body-text story-content\" data-para-count=\"273\" data-total-count=\"1581\">Matthew Schroeder, an analyst for the survey, said a study of the weapons\u2019 characteristics and factory markings had showed that they match Iranian-made rocket-propelled grenade launchers previously documented in Iraq in 2008 and 2015, and in Ivory Coast in 2014 and 2015.<\/p>\n<p id=\"story-continues-1\" class=\"visually-hidden skip-to-text-link\" data-para-count=\"379\" data-total-count=\"1960\">That finding follows <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/news\/checkpoint\/wp\/2016\/11\/30\/how-iranian-weapons-are-ending-up-in-yemen\/?utm_term=.f5126d97f1e7\">a report late last year<\/a> by Conflict Armament Research, a private arms consultancy, that said the available evidence pointed to an apparent \u201cweapon pipeline, extending from Iran to Somalia and Yemen, which involves the transfer, by dhow, of significant quantities of Iranian-manufactured weapons and weapons that plausibly derive from Iranian stockpiles.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"story-body-supplemental\">\n<div class=\"story-body story-body-2\">\n<p id=\"story-continues-3\" class=\"story-body-text story-content\" data-para-count=\"293\" data-total-count=\"2253\">For years, Iran has been under a series of international sanctions prohibiting it from exporting arms. The United States has frequently claimed that Tehran has violated the sanctions in support of proxy forces in many conflicts, including in Iraq, Syria, Yemen and the <a class=\"meta-classifier\" title=\"More articles about Palestinians.\" href=\"http:\/\/topics.nytimes.com\/top\/reference\/timestopics\/subjects\/p\/palestinians\/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier\">Palestinian<\/a> territories.<\/p>\n<p class=\"story-body-text story-content\" data-para-count=\"151\" data-total-count=\"2404\">The grenade launchers that were the subject of Mr. Schroeder\u2019s analysis are the central component of a reusable weapon system commonly called RPG-7s.<\/p>\n<p class=\"story-body-text story-content\" data-para-count=\"274\" data-total-count=\"2678\">They were among 81 launchers seized on the Samer by Australian sailors, part of a hidden cargo that included 1,968 Kalashnikov assault rifles, 49 PK machine guns, 41 spare machine-gun barrels and 20 60-millimeter mortar tubes \u2014 enough weapons to arm a potent ground force.<\/p>\n<p class=\"story-body-text story-content\" data-para-count=\"221\" data-total-count=\"2899\">Although the evidence was not conclusive, Mr. Schroeder said, \u201cthe seizure appears to be yet another example of Iranian weapons being shipped abroad despite longstanding U.N. restrictions on arms transfers from Iran.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"story-body-text story-content\" data-para-count=\"253\" data-total-count=\"3152\">With Iran observing three days of mourning following the death of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2017\/01\/10\/world\/middleeast\/iran-rafsanjani-funeral-protests.html?ref=world\">Ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani,<\/a> it was not possible to contact the government for comment. But on previous occasions, Iran has refused to respond to inquiries about the smuggling.<\/p>\n<p class=\"story-body-text story-content\" data-para-count=\"317\" data-total-count=\"3469\">The Samer episode was one of four interdictions of Iranian dhows from September 2015 through March 2016 that yielded, in total, more than 80 antitank guided missiles and 5,000 Kalashnikov rifles as well as sniper rifles, machine guns and almost 300 RPG launchers, according to data provided by the United States Navy.<\/p>\n<p class=\"story-body-text story-content\" data-para-count=\"245\" data-total-count=\"3714\">In 2013, the Navy <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2013\/03\/03\/world\/middleeast\/seized-arms-off-yemen-raise-alarm-over-iran.html\">stopped another dhow<\/a> off the Yemeni coast and found it to be carrying shoulder-fired antiaircraft missiles and launchers, rifle and machine-gun cartridges, C4 plastic explosives, night-vision equipment and other military items.<\/p>\n<p id=\"story-continues-4\" class=\"story-body-text story-content\" data-para-count=\"197\" data-total-count=\"3911\">In an interview in Bahrain, Vice Adm. Kevin M. Donegan, the commander of the Navy\u2019s Fifth Fleet, suggested that these seizures were part of a larger effort by Iran to move weapons to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2016\/11\/26\/world\/middleeast\/houthi-rebels-yemen.html?rref=collection%2Ftimestopic%2FYemen&amp;amp;action=click&amp;amp;contentCollection=world&amp;amp;region=stream&amp;amp;module=stream_unit&amp;amp;version=latest&amp;amp;contentPlacement=10&amp;amp;pgtype=collection\">the Houthis<\/a>.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"media-100000004863149\" class=\"media photo embedded layout-small-horizontal media-100000004863149 ratio-tall\" data-media-action=\"modal\"><span class=\"visually-hidden\">Photo<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"image\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"media-viewer-candidate\" src=\"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2017\/01\/11\/world\/11Yemen2\/11Yemen2-master315.jpg\" alt=\"\" data-mediaviewer-src=\"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2017\/01\/11\/world\/11Yemen2\/11Yemen2-superJumbo.jpg\" data-mediaviewer-caption=\"A grenade launcher that was part of the weapons cache.\" data-mediaviewer-credit=\"Australian Department of Defense, via Small Arms Survey\" \/><\/p>\n<div class=\"media-action-overlay\"><\/div>\n<\/div><figcaption class=\"caption\"><span class=\"caption-text\">A grenade launcher that was part of the weapons cache.<\/span> <span class=\"credit\"> <span class=\"visually-hidden\">Credit<\/span> Australian Department of Defense, via Small Arms Survey <\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"story-body-text story-content\" data-para-count=\"166\" data-total-count=\"4077\">\u201cAbsolutely it\u2019s not everything,\u201d he said of the four seizures in 2015 and 2016. \u201cThese are the ones that I know of because we were able to interdict them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"story-body-text story-content\" data-para-count=\"281\" data-total-count=\"4358\">Admiral Donegan noted, however, that the captains operating the vessels are typically \u201cout-of-work fishermen, smugglers; they\u2019re not necessarily working for the government\u201d of Iran. He added that the evidence of Iran\u2019s hand in the shipments, while strong, was not ironclad.<\/p>\n<p class=\"story-body-text story-content\" data-para-count=\"273\" data-total-count=\"4631\">This echoed the report by Conflict Armament Research, which said that antitank weapons apparently seized in Yemen have matched lot numbers for the same class of weapons seized on Iranian dhows but stopped short of claiming to have clear proof of an Iranian government hand.<\/p>\n<p class=\"story-body-text story-content\" data-para-count=\"143\" data-total-count=\"4774\">The consultancy also documented weapons manufactured by China, Russia, Romania, Bulgaria and perhaps in North Korea in seizures from the dhows.<\/p>\n<p class=\"story-body-text story-content\" data-para-count=\"258\" data-total-count=\"5032\">The consultancy also did not suggest that the evidence indicated a direct handoff of weapons from the dhows to Houthi forces. Rather, it said, the weapons appear to be offloaded in Somalia and transferred to smaller vessels for smuggling into southern Yemen.<\/p>\n<p class=\"story-body-text story-content\" data-para-count=\"153\" data-total-count=\"5185\">Weapons from Iranian dhows would not be alone in reaching the conflict, which has been fueled in part by extensive arms transfers by outside governments.<\/p>\n<p class=\"story-body-text story-content\" data-para-count=\"301\" data-total-count=\"5486\">Western governments, including those of the United States, Britain and Canada, have provided billions of dollars worth of weapons and military equipment, as well as intelligence and logistics support, to the Saudi-led coalition, which has been waging an extensive bombing campaign against the Houthis.<\/p>\n<p class=\"story-body-text story-content\" data-para-count=\"214\" data-total-count=\"5700\" data-node-uid=\"1\">Among <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2016\/11\/14\/world\/middleeast\/yemen-saudi-bombing-houthis-hunger.html?_r=0\">the American-provided weapons<\/a> have been GBU-series guided bombs and <a class=\"meta-classifier\" title=\"More articles about cluster munitions.\" href=\"http:\/\/topics.nytimes.com\/top\/reference\/timestopics\/subjects\/c\/cluster_munitions\/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier\">cluster munitions<\/a>, both of which have been linked by human rights groups and journalists to attacks on Yemeni factories and civilian deaths.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>News Source: The New York times, By C. J. CHIVERS and ERIC SCHMITT- JAN. 10, 2017 Photographs recently released by the Australian government show that <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.irandemocratic.org\/public_html\/news\/6724\/\" title=\"Arms Seized Off Coast of Yemen Appear to Have Been Made in Iran\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6725,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6724","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-terrorism-fundamentalism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.irandemocratic.org\/public_html\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6724","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.irandemocratic.org\/public_html\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.irandemocratic.org\/public_html\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.irandemocratic.org\/public_html\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.irandemocratic.org\/public_html\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6724"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.irandemocratic.org\/public_html\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6724\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6726,"href":"https:\/\/www.irandemocratic.org\/public_html\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6724\/revisions\/6726"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.irandemocratic.org\/public_html\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6725"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.irandemocratic.org\/public_html\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6724"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.irandemocratic.org\/public_html\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6724"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.irandemocratic.org\/public_html\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6724"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}