UN does not confirm Iran link to Yemen missiles — Report

UNITED NATIONS, United States: UN officials who examined debris from missiles fired at Saudi Arabia from Yemen have not confirmed that they were Iranianmade but are still analysing the information, according to a confidential report obtained by AFP.

Saudi Arabia and the United States have accused Iran of supplying weapons to Yemen’s Huthi rebels who fired a missile intercepted near Riyadh airport on Nov 4.

Weapons supplies to the Huthis would be in violation of a UN arms embargo on Yemen and of a ban on weapons sales by Iran.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told the Security Council that the missiles fired on July 22 and Nov 4 both had a diameter that was ‘consistent’ with a Scud missile. The Qiam-1 is a variant of the Scud missile.

Guterres said “the missiles had similar structural and manufacturing features which suggest a common origin”, according to the report sent to the council on Friday.

He cautioned that UN officials were still “carefully reviewing all the information and material available,” but offered no firm conclusions.

A separate team of UN experts who inspected the missile fragments during a visit to Riyadh last month found a possible link to an Iranian manufacturer, the Shahid Bagheri Industrial Group which is on the UN sanctions blacklist.

The experts who report to the sanctions committee found a component marked by a logo similar to that of the banned group, which is a subsidiary of the Iranian Aerospace Industries Organisation.

In his report, Guterres said officials had seen the logo but again said they were still analysing the information.

US Ambassador Nikki Haley has called for international action against Iran over the missile attacks from Yemen against Saudi Arabia, which Riyadh has described as a ‘direct aggression’. — AFP