Iranian fuel to finance Houthis in Yemen

A panel of UN experts found that fuel loaded at ports in Iran using false documentation is going 'to finance Houthi war effort.’

Fuel loaded at ports in Iran has generated revenue to finance Yemen's Houthi rebels in their fight against the legitimate government.

The 85-page report sent to the UN Security Council, discovered fuel was being "loaded from ports in Iran under false documentation" to avoid UN inspections.

To do it, the experts said, "a small number of companies, both within Yemen and outside" have operated as "front companies," using fake documents to conceal the fuel shipments.

"The revenue from the sale of fuel was then used to finance the Houthi war effort," the report said.

The experts have in past reports pointed to a possible Iranian link to missiles fired by Houthi rebels at Saudi Arabia, after they travelled to Riyadh to examine weapons debris.

In a previous report, the experts said they were investigating monthly fuel donations from Iran valued at $30m.

IRGC Deputy Commander Hossein Salami declared on Nov. 22, 2018 during a conference to support the Houthis in Tehran that Iran is providing all kinds of support to the Houthi militias, and in March 2016, Brigadier General Massoud Jazayeri affirmed that Tehran is supporting the Houthis in Yemen.

Also, a report submitted to the UN in August 2018 condemned the launch of Iranian-built ballistic missiles by the Houthi rebels against targets in Saudi Arabia, including in civilian areas, and their indiscriminate use of sea mines and internationally banned anti-personnel landmine.

Moreover, in Nov. 29, 2018, at a military hangar in Washington, Brian Hook, the US special representative for Iran, showed reporters a collection of guns, rockets, drones and other gear. Some of these had been intercepted in the Strait of Hormuz en route to Shia fighters in the region while others had been seized by the Saudis in Yemen, the Pentagon said.

Hook showed images of a Sayyad-2 surface-to-air missiles with the words “The Hunter Missile” in Farsi on its side, which he said was intercepted in Yemen.

Moreover, Iran dispatched dozens of Hezbollah and the Iranian Revolutionary Guards to Yemen. In September 2016, a Yemeni military commander announced the deployment of three Iranian experts and a Lebanese expert to fight alongside the Houthi militias in Shabwah Governorate.

Last May, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) designated five Iranian individuals who have provided ballistic missile-related technical expertise to Yemen’s Houthis, and who have transferred weapons not seen in Yemen prior to the current conflict, on behalf of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force (IRGC-QF).

The Iranian individuals were identified as Mehdi Azarpisheh, Mohammad Agha Ja’fari, Mahmud Bagheri Kazemabad, Javad Bordbar Shir Amin, and Sayyed Mohammad Ali Haddadnezhad.

These sanctions follow the United Nations Panel of Experts’ affirmation in late January that missiles and other military equipment employed by the Houthis against Saudi Arabia were Iranian-origin.

In addition to Iranian military experts and revolutionary guards, Nasser Akhdar, also known as Abu Mustafa, the high ranking Hezbollah official, has served as a communication link between the Houthi militias and Tehran.

Senior member of the Yemeni General People’s Congress Kamel Al-Khodani told The Reference in an interview that the UN report affirms Iran’s terrorist role in Yemen, and its support to the Houthi militias to convert Yement into a battleground to attack Saudi Arabia.

Khodani further added that not only did Iran support the Houthis financially, as a number of reports and documentations confirm the Iranian support to the Houthi rebels with weapons and experts, not to mention media support through training Houthi media figures in Hezbollah-affiliated channels, in coordination with the Doha-owned Al Jazeera channel, Qatar’s malicious media arm in the Middle East.

He also added that the Iranian regime also trained Houthis on planting sea mines and performing suicide missions through rigged boats. Mehdi Taeb, a head of the Revolutionary Guards intelligence wing and a close advisor to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has also admitted that Iran provided the Houthis with long-range and short-range missiles.