French Foreign Minister Accuses Iran of Supplying Weapons to Houthis

One day after the condemnation of the Houthis by the United Nations Security Council, France officially joined the United States in accusing Iran of supplying weapons to the Shia Houthis in Yemen. According to Agence France-Presse, Jean-Yves Le Drian, the French Foreign Minister, in a radio interview broadcast on Thursday, April 9, referred to the 'repeated' attacks by the Houthis on Saudi Arabia, naming Iran as the 'supplier' of weapons for them. The UN Security Council on Wednesday issued a statement strongly condemning the recent missile attacks by the Shia Houthi militants on Saudi Arabia, describing them as a 'threat' to regional security. This statement was released just days after Saudi Arabia announced that it had intercepted seven ballistic missiles fired by Houthi rebels from Yemen. The launch of these seven missiles, which the Houthis did not deny, was not the first attack by this Shia group on Saudi territory. In each case of Houthi attacks on Saudi forces or territory, the Islamic Republic has also been mentioned as the supplier of weapons for this group. In this context, UN experts responsible for monitoring the implementation of Yemen sanctions visited Saudi Arabia twice, once in May and July 2017, and then in November and December of the same year to investigate the remnants of ground-to-ground missiles fired by the Houthis at Saudi targets. These experts concluded that these weapons have Iranian origins and reached the Houthis after the UN Security Council sanctions began in March 2015. Despite Riyadh and Washington's insistence that Iran is involved in supplying weapons to the Houthis, Iranian officials have repeatedly denied these accusations, describing them as a conspiracy to damage Iran. For instance, on Tuesday, April 7, Yadollah Javani, the political deputy of the IRGC, told the Tasnim news agency that the 'claim of Iranian missiles in Yemen' is a Saudi tactic to 'divert public opinion from its crimes in Yemen.' Now France has joined the US and Saudi Arabia: Jean-Yves Le Drian, the French Foreign Minister, officially accused Iran of supplying weapons to the Houthis in Yemen on Thursday. Mr. Le Drian stated: 'The issue in Yemen is that the political process [to resolve the crisis] has not started, which is why Saudi Arabia is repeatedly attacked by the Houthis, who are supplied with weapons by Iran.' Yemen has been the scene of war for the past three years between a coalition of Arab countries led by Saudi Arabia and the Shia Houthi militants and their allies. Regional and Western countries accuse Iran of providing military support to the Houthi militants, while the Houthis reject these accusations, presenting themselves as part of a revolutionary movement against corruption in Yemen. Western countries also accuse Iran of destabilizing the region by interfering in the internal affairs of Middle Eastern countries and have urged Tehran to cease military support to the Houhi militants. Earlier, Boris Johnson, the British Foreign Minister, also stated in a statement: 'If Iran is truly committed to a political solution for Yemen, as it claims in its public statements, it must stop sending weapons to Yemen, as [sending weapons to Yemen] prolongs the war, escalates tensions in the region, and threatens international peace and security.'