French Military Confiscates Iran-Originated Arms Headed to Yemen

France increases its efforts in combating arms trafficking

Elite French military forces intercepted a shipment of weapons and ammunition originating from Iran that were en route to militants in Yemen as part of their ongoing efforts to curb Tehran's influence.

On January 15, a French naval vessel stopped a suspected smuggler's ship off the coast of Yemen, and a specially trained French team boarded the vessel. The military discovered more than 3,000 assault rifles, 20 antitank guided missiles and half a million rounds of ammunition.

his operation was a joint effort between France and the United States military and aimed to enforce the United Nations arms embargo on weapons heading to Yemen's Houthi rebels. The embargo's scope was recently expanded by the U.N. to restrict the flow of weapons.

Recently, France and the UK have taken on a larger role in preventing weapons smuggling, as the U.S. military previously led the effort in stopping supplies reaching the Houthis. Tensions have been escalating between Iran and European powers as negotiations to revive the international deal that restrains Iran's nuclear program have been at a stalemate. At the same time, the number of European citizens being detained by Iran has increased.

U.S. Fifth Fleet spokesman Commander Tim Hawkins stated that the American military assisted in the seizure of weapons in the Gulf of Oman on January 15, but declined to provide more information. He also added that in the past two months, the U.S. military and its partners have prevented more than 5,000 weapons and 1.6 million rounds of ammunition from reaching Yemen. The French military declined to comment on the operation.

This latest French operation is one in a series of weapons confiscations that indicate Iran continues to supply weapons to their Houthi allies in Yemen, despite an unofficial ceasefire in place for nine months, which has provided more opportunities for political talks.

The U.S. and its allies have accused Iran of providing the Houthis with missiles, drones, and other weapons used to carry out attacks on Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Yemeni forces. Iran openly supports the Houthi forces politically, but denies providing them with weapons in violation of U.N. resolutions.

The war in Yemen has been ongoing for over eight years. Houthi fighters took control of the capital in 2014, leading to a military campaign launched by Saudi Arabia and allies to remove them from power. However, the campaign was unsuccessful, and the two sides have been engaged in a destabilizing war causing the world's worst humanitarian crisis, according to the U.N. Thousands of civilians have lost their lives, and nearly three-quarters of the country's population relies on humanitarian aid for survival.

In early January, the U.S. Navy announced the confiscation of more than 2,000 assault rifles from a ship in the Gulf of Oman, which were said to be headed to Houthi forces in Yemen. In July, the UK Royal Navy made its first weapons seizure, intercepting surface-to-air missiles and cruise-missile engines from a boat near the southern coast of Iran. The U.S. Navy also made several seizures in December, including 1,400 AK-47 rifles and over 226,000 rounds of ammunition from a fishing vessel in the north Arabian Sea, and over 1.1 million rounds of ammunition from a fishing trawler between Iran and Yemen.