Thousands of AK-47 assault rifles sit on the flight deck of guided-missile destroyer USS The Sullivans (DDG 68) during an inventory process, Jan. 7. U.S. naval forces seized 2,116 AK-47 assault rifles from a fishing vessel transiting along a maritime route from Iran to Yemen. Photo By: U.S. Navy
The United States is considering transferring thousands of seized Iranian weapons and more than a million rounds of ammunition which were originally intended for the Houthi (Ansar Allah) in Yemen, The Wall Street Journal reported on February 14, citing American and European officials.
According to the report, Ukraine could get more than 5,000 assault rifles, 1.6 million rounds of small arms ammunition, a small number of anti-tank guided missiles, and more than 7,000 proximity fuses which were recently seized by the U.S. and France near the Yemeni coast from smugglers suspected of working for Iran.
The report noted that the main challenge for the Biden administration is finding a legal justification for transferring the weapons to Ukraine as the United Nations arms embargo, which they were seized under, requires the U.S. and France to destroy, store, or dispose of them.
Biden administration lawyers are reportedly exploring whether there is any legal loophole that would permit the transfer of the seized weapons.
“It’s a message to take weapons meant to arm Iran’s proxies and flip them to achieve our priorities in Ukraine, where Iran is providing arms to Russia,” WSJ quoted one American official as saying.
The U.S. may have already supplied some seized Iranian weapons to Ukraine. Iranian weapons, including heavy mortars, were spotted with Kiev forces just a few months after the start of the Russian special military operation in the country. Back then, several reports said that the weapons were originally seized by the U.S. or one of its allies somewhere in the Middle East.
Iran has been reportedly supplying the Houthis with all sorts of weapons, including suicide drones and precision-guided missiles, since the start of the Saudi-led intervention in Yemen more than seven years ago.
Earlier this week, the United Kingdom said that it had presented the UN with evidence linking Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) to the smuggling of weapons to Yemen, including footage recovered from a seized drone showing tests at a military base near Tehran.
The U.S. and its allies have also accused Iran of supplying Russian with combat and suicide drones for use in the special military operation in Ukraine. An accusation that was denied by Moscow on more than one occasion.
The plan to supply seized Iranian weapons to Ukraine reveals how the U.S. and its allies are doing everything they could to keep funneling weapons to Kiev forces.
