UN says missiles fired at Saudi Arabia have ‘common origin,’ as they investigate Tehran

UN officials have found that missiles fired at Saudi Arabia by Yemen’s Houthi rebels appear to have a “common origin”, a confidential report says.

But they are still investigating US and Saudi claims that Iran supplied them, the report says.

The officials travelled to Saudi Arabia to examine the debris of missiles fired on July 22 and November 4, UN secretary general Antonio Guterres said in the fourth report on UN sanctions and restrictions on Iran.

They found “that the missiles had similar structural and manufacturing features, which suggest a common origin”, said Mr Guterres in the report to the UN security council.

The report was announced amid calls by the US for Iran to be held accountable for breaching security council resolutions on Yemen and Iran by supplying weapons to the Houthis.

Saudi-led forces including UAE troops, who back the internationally recognised Yemeni government, have been fighting the Iran-backed Houthis in the civil war in Yemen for more than two years.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has described Iran’s supply of rockets to the Houthis as “direct military aggression” that could be an act of war.

Tehran has denied supplying warms to the rebels, saying the US and Saudi allegations are “baseless and unfounded”.

Mr Guterres’s report said the UN officials saw three components, which Saudi authorities said came from the missile fired on November 4.

The components “bore the castings of a logo similar to that of the Shahid Bagheri Industrial Group”, a company blacklisted by the UN.

The officials are “still analysing the information collected and will report back to the security council”, Mr Guterres wrote.

Another report to the council last month by a panel of independent experts found that four missiles fired this year into Saudi Arabia appeared to have been designed and made by Iran.

But the panel said that as yet it had “no evidence as to the identity of the broker or supplier” of the missiles, which were probably shipped to the Houthis in breach of a UN arms embargo imposed on the rebel leaders in April 2015.

Most UN sanctions on Iran were lifted in January last year when the UN nuclear watchdog confirmed that Tehran had met commitments under a nuclear deal with Britain, France, Germany, China, Russia and the US.

But Iran is still subject to a UN arms embargo and other restrictions.