DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The U.S. Navy said Tuesday it found 70 tons of a missile fuel component hidden among bags of fertilizer aboard a ship bound for Yemen from Iran , the first such seizure in this country’s years-long war as a cease-fire. -The fire broke out there.
The Navy said the amount of ammonium perchlorate discovered could fuel more than a dozen medium-range ballistic missiles, the same weapons Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels have used to attack the two forces allied to the country’s internationally recognized government and the Saudi-led coalition that supports them.
The apparent rearmament effort comes as Iran has threatened Saudi Arabia, the United States and other nations during months of protests calling for the overthrow of the Islamic Republic’s theocracy. Tehran blames foreign powers, rather than its own frustrated population, for fomenting the protests, which have seen at least 344 people killed and 15,820 arrested amid a growing crackdown on dissent.
The Houthis and Iran’s mission to the United Nations did not respond to requests for comment.
“This type of shipment and just the massive volume of explosive material is a serious concern because it’s destabilizing,” said Cmdr. Timothy Hawkins, a spokesman for the Navy’s 5th Fleet in the Middle East, told The Associated Press. “Illegal Transport of Weapons from Iran to Yemen Causes Instability and Violence.”
The US Coast Guard ship USCGC John Scheuerman and the guided-missile destroyer USS The Sullivans stopped a traditional wooden sailing vessel known as a dhow in the Gulf of Oman on Nov. 8, the Navy said. During a week-long search, sailors discovered bags of ammonium perchlorate hidden inside what initially appeared to be a 100-ton shipment of urea.
Urea, a fertilizer, can also be used to make explosives.
The dhow was so heavy with shipping that it posed a hazard to shipping near the Gulf of Oman, a route that runs from the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf, to the Indian Ocean. The Navy ended up sinking the ship with much of the material still on board because of the danger, Hawkins said.
The Sullivans handed over the four Yemeni crew members to the country’s internationally recognized government on Tuesday.
When asked how the Navy knew to stop the ship, Hawkins said only that the Navy knew through “various means” that the ship was carrying the fuel and that it was coming from Iran bound for Yemen. He declined to elaborate.
“Given that it was on a route commonly used to smuggle weapons and illicit drugs from Iran to Yemen, it really tells you what you need to know,” Hawkins said. “It was clearly not meant for good.”
The Houthis seized Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, in September 2014 and forced the internationally recognized government into exile. A Saudi-led coalition armed with US weaponry and intelligence entered the war alongside Yemen’s exiled government in March 2015. Years of inconclusive fighting have pushed the Arab world’s poorest nation to the brink of starvation
The United Nations arms embargo has banned arms transfers to the Houthis since 2014. Despite this, Iran has long transferred rifles, rocket-propelled grenades, missiles and other weapons to the Houthis via dhow shipments. Although Iran denies arming the Houthis, independent experts, Western nations and UN experts have traced components seized abroad from seized ships to Iran.
A six-month ceasefire in Yemen’s war, the longest in the conflict, expired in October despite diplomatic efforts to renew it. This has led to fears that the war will escalate again. More than 150,000 people have died in Yemen during the fighting, including more than 14,500 civilians.
There have been sporadic attacks since the ceasefire expired. In late October, a Houthi drone strike targeted a Greek cargo ship near the port city of Mukalla, causing no damage to the ship.
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Follow Jon Gambrell on Twitter at www.twitter.com/jongambrellAP.