Riyadh (Debriefer) - The Yemeni official caretaker government on Saturday called for embargo on Iranian arms be extended, and pressures on Tehran regime be intensified to stop "terrorist activities destabilizing the regional and international security and peace."
By persistently providing the Houthis with weapons, the Iranian regime "blatantly violates the UN resolutions pertaining to the Yemeni crisis," the Yemeni information minister tweeted.
"The capture of a Houthi cell smuggling Iranian arms and their admission that they received trainings in Iran and have links to the Revolutionary Guards evidently prove that Iran is involved in smuggling weapons and arming the Houthis," Moammar al-Eryani added.
"These confessions affirm that the Iranian-backed Houthi group has exploited the Sweden pact and used the ports of Hodeida, Salif and Ras Isa to smuggle arms, escalate its military acts in Yemen and to target civilian objects in Saudi Arabia and vessels in the Red Sea," he said.
On Tuesday, Yemen's joint forces (JF) said they have detected an Iranian Republican Guard-affiliated cell smuggling arms to Houthis and captured its chief in Yemen and three of its elements, following a "qualitative" intelligence operation.
Based on the intelligence, the cell's members were captured by the Yemeni coastguards in the Red Sea on 7 May 2020, the JF media center quoted an official as saying.
The coastguard forces intercepted the cell's four members possessing passports, 'Thuria' cellphone and 'Magellan' GPS device on a boat in Thubab area near to Bab al-Mandeb strait in the Red Sea, the center said.
The Houthi group commissioned the cell to go to Iran taking a 3-station trip throughout which boats are replaced and routes are changed until reaching Bandar Abbas port where they would receive naval training and, then, smuggle arms on a ship.
The cell's chief, Alwan Fotaini (nicknamed Abu Radhwan), had already travelled to Iran along with four men on a plane that airlifted injured Houthis.
In Iran, Fotaini and his 4-member group late in 2015 were intensely trained by the IRG for one month and a half on camouflage, mapping, GPS, boat sailing and engine maintenance, the center claimed.
After his return from Iran, the cell's chief was tasked with smuggling Iranian arms to Houthis through maritime and land routes, according to confessions extracted from the cell elements.
Investigations with the captured cell members unveiled vital information on IRG-affiliated smuggling networks active in Yemen and the African Horn, and on stations, stages and routes taken to ship arms from Iran to Houthis.
