AK-47 assault rifles seized from ships transiting along the sea route from Iran to Yemen from operations earlier in January. Photo/US Naval Central Command/REUTERS
The weapons were allegedly shipped to the Houthis by Iran and seized off the coast of Yemen. The US effort was reported by the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) on Tuesday (14/2/2023).
Citing unnamed US and European officials, the WSJ said the White House was looking into “wiggle room” in UN regulations so that rifles, rockets and ammunition seized on the high seas could be diverted to Kiev.
The amount of weapons seized is small compared to what the US and its allies have been sending to Ukraine over the past year.
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The unnamed official said it would be a symbolic punishment for Iran supplying Russia with drones. The accusations have been denied by Tehran and Moscow.
“This is a message to take weapons that are meant to arm Iranian proxies and turn them around to achieve our priorities in Ukraine, where Iran is providing weapons to Russia,” an unnamed US official told the WSJ.
According to the WSJ, the confiscated weapons totaled 5,000 rifles, 1.6 million rounds of ammunition, a number of anti-tank rockets and around 7,000 proximity fuses.
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