Tehran provoking war, Yemen complains to UN

Children sitting on the window sill of their house, in Sanaa, Yemen, on Friday. (Reuters)
Updated 20 February 2017
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Tehran provoking war, Yemen complains to UN

ADEN: The Yemeni government on Saturday filed a complaint with the UN over Iran’s continuous incitement of war and attacking of neighboring countries.
Ambassador Khaled Al-Yamani, Yemen’s permanent representative to the UN, said Iran is continuing to incite war in Yemen and conflict in corridors of the southern Red Sea and the strategic Bab Al-Mandab.
In a letter sent by his country’s legitimate government to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, the ambassador said Iran continues to fund Houthis in Yemen. Iran, he added, supports Houthi groups militarily and strategically through funding, training of fighters, and provision of shipments of weapons and ammunition, a clear violation of UN Security Council Resolution 2231.
The complaint, which was published on Sunday by the Yemeni Press Agency, also reveals that shipments containing smuggled Iranian weapons have been intercepted on several occasions by member countries and joint naval forces.
Meanwhile, Houthis sent 7,000 Yemeni students on scholarships to Qom, Iran, to study. But the Yemeni Ministry of Education, belonging to the legitimate government, stopped the efforts and said it will not accept any foreign curriculum contradictory to the nature and creed of Yemeni society, said Abdullah Lamlas, Yemen’s minister of education.
Lamlas said the government will amend the education curriculum changed by the Houthis.
The Yemeni education curriculum is one of several major challenges faced by the government. Education is considered one of the most important means to establish a new Yemen under the legitimate government following the coup carried out by the Houthis and the ousted Saleh supporters.
The circumstances created by the coup militias created a deep rift in the educational infrastructure at the physical and intellectual levels, notably the changes to the curriculum, and the introduction of sectarian and revolutionary tendencies.
In regards to Iran’s military support of the rebels, the commander of the Houthi coup militias, Abdul-Malek Al-Houthi, said in a televised speech on Feb. 10 that his group has begun manufacturing spy planes. The letter to the UN from Yemen’s legitimate government argues that this proves the extent of Iran’s involvement in the supplying of weapons and expertise to the Houthis. In turn, such support is only contributing to extending the war and obstructing peace.
Al-Yamani also said that Houthi militias are still receiving training from elements linked to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps, namely Hezbollah, on how to use modern weapons looted from Yemeni armed forces’ warehouses, as well as Iranian weapons.
“Houthi and Saleh coup militias have launched ballistic missiles in an indiscriminate and irresponsible manner targeting the border of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, which has resulted in hundreds of injuries and destruction of infrastructure, including schools and hospitals,” the letter stated.
The ambassador said the Qaher-1 and Zelzal-3 ballistic missiles used in such attacks were manufactured in Iran, as determined by the committee of experts on Yemen. Houthi militias have also attacked ships passing through the southern Red Sea area in a manner similar to the mechanisms and tactics used by Iranian forces in the Strait of Hormuz.


Syrian, Iraqi authorities seize 300,000 Captagon pills in Homs

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Syrian, Iraqi authorities seize 300,000 Captagon pills in Homs

  • Two suspects are wanted internationally for drug trafficking, and one of them is a foreign national

LONDON: Syria’s Narcotics Department, in collaboration with Iraq’s General Directorate for Narcotics and Psychotropic Substances Affairs, thwarted an attempt to smuggle drugs across the border.

The Interior Ministry announced on Thursday a joint security operation targeting an international criminal network in the Homs governorate of northern Syria, involved in the manufacture, promotion and smuggling of narcotics.

Authorities seized about 300,000 tablets of the narcotic substance Captagon and arrested two suspects attempting to smuggle these substances into Syria to distribute them in the region later.

The two suspects are wanted internationally for drug trafficking, and one of them is a foreign national, according to the ministry.

In January, authorities in Syria and Iraq targeted an international drug smuggling network, leading to the seizure of about 2.5 million Captagon pills and the arrest of several individuals in both countries involved in criminal activity.