US suspects Iran trying to deliver surface-to-air missiles to Houthis

The US suspects Iran is attempting to supply Houthi rebels in Yemen with surface-to-air missiles and an American destroyer this month boarded a Panamanian-flagged ship in the Read Sea it thought was carrying such weapons aimed for the war-torn country.

According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, this particular search came up empty but US officials were saying it was part of a campaign to stop Iran, a backer of the Shiite Houthis in Yemen, from supplying such game-changing weapons that could present a challenge to Saudi-led airstrikes.

According to a senior defense official cited in the report, the US knows Iran is trying to deliver these weapons and has stepped up surveillance in the region to monitor Iran and the Iranian-backed Houthis.

“We are looking,” said one senior US defense official. “We know they are trying to do it.”

Weeks of airstrikes have damaged runways in the country, according to US officials, making it harder for the rebels to acquire weapons by air.

“They don’t have an easy route in from the air. They don’t have an easy route in from the sea,” one senior US military told the Wall Street Journal. “There’s lots of intelligence focused on what they’re doing—from loading to potential delivery.”

According to the report, the Saudi-led campaign seemed to be affecting Iran support for the Houthis and the US believes Iran’s interest in securing a final deal with the P5+1 world powers on its nuclear program may deter it from helping the rebels.

“I don’t get the sense that the Iranian level of commitment at this point is of such a magnitude that they are going to take a big risk of being exposed any more than they already are,” said another US official. “If they can do it, and it’s not going to cost them a whole lot, I think they’ll do it. But the Houthis are not some ally that they are going to go to the mat for.”

On Sunday, Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister refused calls from Tehran to stop its aerial assault. Iran supports the Houthis, who are fellow Shiites, but both Tehran and the rebels deny it arms them.

Prince Saud al-Faisal said his country is not at war with Iran, but charged Tehran with fueling the cycle of violence in Yemen. Riyadh and Tehran are longtime regional rivals, and also back opposite sides in Syria’s civil war.

Meanwhile, Yemen’s President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, who fled the country in the face of the rebel advance last month, has tapped his former Prime Minister Khaled Bahah to be vice president in a move aimed at strengthening the embattled executive branch, an official close to Hadi said.

The Shiite rebels had demanded the formation of a presidential council instead. Along with military units allied with former President Ali Abdullah Saleh, they control the capital, Sanaa, and much of the country’s north, and have advanced despite more than two weeks of Saudi-led airstrikes.

Mohammed Abdel Salam, a Houthi spokesman, denounced the appointment of Bahah in televised comments on a pro-Houthi channel. He said that the Houthi group will not recognize decisions promulgated by Hadi and that anything pertaining to the country’s politics should be decided upon through dialogue within the country.

UN special envoy for Yemen Jamal Benomar has been urging the parties to come to a negotiated settlement. Saleh has also called for a UN-sponsored dialogue.

Hadi fled the capital earlier this year after the Houthis put him under house arrest, and established a temporary capital in the southern port city of Aden. He later sought refuge in Saudi Arabia as the rebels and their allies closed in on Aden, which is now gripped by fierce fighting.