Documents and photos expose the UAE’s military support for the Houthis in Yemen
Yemeni sources uncovered documents and photos exposing the UAE’s military support for the Houthis in Yemen.
The documents and photos showed that the UAE supplied the Houthi group with landmines through the Abu Dhabi-backed Southern Transitional Council’s militias.
The documents revealed senior leaders’ involvement in the Transitional Council in the smuggling, coordination and military supply operation for the Houthi group.
Photos of ammunition, mortar shells and night binoculars were also published by the Yemeni resistance as part of a smuggling operation from Aden to the Houthi group, with Emirati coordination.
Other documents revealed a shipment of drones seized by the Libyan National Army last year onboard vehicles from the south to areas under Houthi control.
Recently, the UN Security Council experts committee’s report was revealed that Iranian drone spare parts reach the Houthis via Dubai.
The Houthis launch military airstrikes with drones, ballistic and thermal missiles inside Yemen and on Saudi Arabia.
The Yemeni government and the Arab coalition deny that the Houthis can manufacture the ballistic missiles and drones they use and accuse Iran of smuggling weapons to them.
This cannot happen with the coalition’s control of Yemen’s air, sea, and land ports, which indicates the presence of parties helping to deliver these weapons to the Houthis.
The UN reports about the arrival of modern weapons to the Houthis draw attention to the previous accusations of the UAE and the Transitional Council militia loyal to it, of smuggling weapons, including drones, to the Houthis during the last two years, confirming the extent of rapprochement between the two parties.
According to a new report prepared by the UN Committee of Experts, the Houthi rebels acquired new weapons in 2019, some of which have characteristics similar to those produced in Iran.
The report sent to the UN Security Council said that it resulted from a year-long investigation conducted by the United Nations experts charged with monitoring the arms embargo imposed on Yemen since 2015.
“In addition to the well-known weapons systems that they had so far, the Houthis are now using a new type of Delta drones and a new model of land cruise missiles,” the report said.
According to investigators, two trends have emerged over the past year that may constitute a violation of the embargo. The first trend is to transport spare parts commercially available in industrial countries, such as engines for unmanned aerial vehicles, delivered to the Houthis through a group of intermediaries.
The second trend is the continued delivery of machine guns, bombs, anti-tank missiles and more advanced cruise missile systems to the Houthis.
The experts pointed out that “some of these weapons have technical characteristics similar to weapons made in Iran.” At the same time, they could not prove that the Iranian government had delivered these weapons to the Houthis.
Observers agree that some facilitate the passage of weapons to the Houthis from known ports, and perhaps under humanitarian and relief cover, in addition to suspicion of some coalition parties’ role of the Emirates.
The UN Committee of Experts’ previous report confirmed that companies based in Dubai contribute to the transfer of oil and military aid to the Houthis by providing spare parts.
Last August, a Saudi diplomat published a dangerous document revealing the UAE’s involvement in supporting the Houthi militias to target the kingdom.
Former Saudi diplomat Sultan Al-Tayyar tweeted part of the Security Council report, which indicated that the legitimate forces in Marib intercepted an aircraft shipment coming from Dubai, the components of which were purchased through the UAE. An Iranian company installs it and sends it to Yemen through Dubai, according to the UN report.
