Coalition releases findings of Houthi missile attack on Saudi Arabia

This aggressive and hostile action by the Iran-backed Houthi group proves that the Iranian regime continues to support the armed group with military capabilities

- A press conference is currently being held in the capital Riyadh where preliminary findings of the Houthi militia missiles attack on several Saudi cities will be made available to the public.

The spokesman of the Arab coalition, Col. Turki Al-Maliki, is expected to brief journalists and the public on Sunday night’s attack on several cities in Saudi Arabia, including Riyadh, Khamis Mushait, Najran and Jazan.

Saudi forces intercepted seven Yemeni rebel missiles on Sunday, including over the capital Riyadh.

“This aggressive and hostile action by the Iran-backed Houthi group proves that the Iranian regime continues to support the armed group with military capabilities,” Arab Coalition spokesman Turki al-Malki said.

Top U.S. General: Iranian Regional Meddling Has Increased Since Nuclear Deal

Yemeni women loyal to the Houthi movement hold up rifles as they attend a gathering in the capital Sanaa o Iran has boosted its investments in militant and terrorist groups across the Middle East since the enactment of the 2015 nuclear deal, the nation’s top general who oversees U.S. Central Command said Tuesday.

“What it took 20 years for Iran to do in Lebanon with the Lebanese Hezbollah, they’re attempting to do in about five years with the Houthis in Yemen,” General Joseph Votel told lawmakers on the House Armed Services Committee. “They’re accelerating their pace and their ability to do this.”
Asked whether Iran has reduced, maintained, or enhanced its investment in their proxy forces since the birth of the nuclear deal, Votel said, “I would characterize it as an enhanced investment in their proxies and partners.”
Tehran provides money, weapons, and tactics, to groups throughout the Middle East, in addition to “cultivating a network of operatives across the globe as a contingency to enable potential terrorist attacks,” according to an intelligence community assessment released earlier this month.
Votel also said that he is highly concerned about the expansion, both in quantity and quality, of Iran’s ballistic missile force. Iran holds the largest ballistic missile inventory in the Middle East.
“Like we go out to China Lake to test our weapons systems, they go to Yemen to test their weapons systems,” he said. “They are taking advantage of these opportunities to improve their capabilities around the world. I definitely am concerned about this.”
Iran supports Houthi rebels in the ongoing civil war in Yemen, and has provided them with “increasingly sophisticated maritime and missile attack capabilities.”
In response to questioning from Wyoming representative Liz Cheney, Votel said that Iran’s advancing ballistic missile arsenal, along with the export of those capabilities, represents one of CENTCOM’s main concerns. “These weapons pose the threat of widening the conflict out of Yemen, and frankly put our forces, our embassy in Riyadh, our forces in the United Arab Emirates, at risk,” he said.

Votel also told Cheney that “countering Iran is not one of the coalition missions in Syria.” After some pushback, he said that the U.S. is able to “indirectly” impede Iran’s objectives in Syria by maintaining relationships with Iraqi forces and Syrian Democratic Forces. “In many regards, these partners share the same concerns we do,” he said.n January 14, 2018.

UN urged to act against Iran over Houthi missiles

The United Nations emblem

 The UN was urged on Saturday to take action against Iran for breaking an arms embargo by illegally supplying missiles to Houthi militias in Yemen.
The calls followed a UN Security Council (UNSC) resolution late on Friday that condemned “in the strongest possible terms” last week’s Houthi ballistic missile attack targeting Al-Yamamah Royal Palace in Riyadh.
All 15 council members “expressed alarm at the stated intention of the Houthis to continue these attacks against Saudi Arabia, as well as to launch additional attacks against other states in the region.”
The council urged all UN member states to fully implement the arms embargo against Houthi militias as required by the relevant Security Council resolutions, and expressed its grave concern about continuing violations of the embargo.
It called again for all parties to engage constructively in the peace efforts of Esmail Ould Shaikh Ahmad, the UN secretary-general’s special envoy for Yemen.
The condemnation was fully merited but the Security Council should have gone farther, analysts and experts told Arab News.
“In addition to expressing grave concern, the UN should take action against Iran, the country that has provided the Houthis with the missiles that targeted Riyadh. Iran is the only country that continues to violate the arms embargo imposed by the UNSC Resolution 2216, which was issued under Chapter VII of the UN Charter,” said Abdel Aziz Aluwaisheg, the assistant secretary-general for political and negotiation affairs at the Gulf Cooperation Council.
“Instead of merely expressing generic concern at the continued non implementation of previous Security Council resolutions, it should have named the party that has refused so far to come back to the negotiating table. That party is the Iranian-allied Houthi militias.
“The government of Yemen has ‘engaged constructively’ with the UN special envoy, but the Houthis have failed to return to negotiations toward reaching a final and comprehensive agreement to end the conflict.”
The council’s statement “reaffirms the international community’s commitment to finding a political solution to the conflict in Yemen,” Fahad Nazer, a fellow at the National Council on US-Arab Relations, told Arab News.
“It also makes clear that the Houthis have not only alienated their fellow Yemeni citizens by trying to impose their will on the rest of Yemeni society but they have also been widely condemned by the international community.
“Their callous disregard for the safety and security of the people of Yemen and their continuing violations of international resolutions and laws by targeting civilians and infrastructure in Saudi Arabia has made them international pariahs.”

Houthi desperation

“As the Houthis lose territory and the scant support they have left in Yemen, they have attempted to broaden and further complicate the conflict by increasing their attacks against Saudi Arabia and by threatening to attack the UAE. These tactics are indicative of their desperation, as they find themselves isolated at home and abroad.”
Dr. Hamdan Al-Shehri, a political analyst and international relations scholar in Riyadh, called for serious measures to prevent the Iran-backed militias from threatening regional peace. The Security Council should take action to halt Iranian aggression, which posed a threat to many Arab countries such as Lebanon and Iraq, he said.
The international community should focus on ways of stopping Iran from supporting terrorism, Al-Shehri said. “If they don’t want to punish Iran now, at least stop these militias.”
Experts also urged the UN to ensure that Yemen’s Red Sea port of Hodeidah, which is occupied by the Houthis, was not used as a supply route for Iranian missiles and other arms.
The Saudi-led Arab Coalition in Yemen closed the port last month after a Houthi ballistic missile attack on Riyadh on Nov. 4. It later reopened to receive shipments of humanitarian aid and relief supplies, and remains operational despite last Tuesday’s further missile attack on the Saudi capital, and evidence that both missiles were supplied by Iran.
“While the UN Security Council is no doubt very concerned about the humanitarian situation in Yemen, it should take action by deploying UN staff to supervise the port of Hodeidah to make sure that it is used solely for civilian purposes and not as a conduit for Iranian weapons,” Aluwaisheg told Arab News.

Medical and food aid

Aid delivered through the ports of Hodeidah and Salif is also being misappropriated by the Houthi militias, the Coalition said on Saturday. Its spokesman, Col. Turki Al-Maliki, accused the Houthis of hampering the distribution of vaccines and stealing medical and food aid.
The theft of vaccines is particularly serious, after the International Committee of the Red Cross said there were now one million cases of cholera in Yemen and they expect another serious outbreak next March and April.
The King Salman Center for Relief and Humanitarian Aid has established more than 250 projects in Yemen at a cost of $895 million, its general supervisor, Dr. Abdullah Al-Rabeeah, said on Saturday.
The projects are operated with local partners and specialized UN agencies, and cover health, sanitation and programs for women and children.

Iran warns it would increase missile range if threatened by Europe

Iran gives missiles to Houthi rebels

 The deputy head of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards warned Europe that if it threatens Tehran, the Guards will increase the range of missiles to above 2,000 kilometers, the Fars news agency reported on Saturday.
France has called for an “uncompromising” dialogue with Iran about its ballistic missile program and a possible negotiation over the issue separate from Tehran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers.
Iran has repeatedly said its missile program is defensive and not negotiable.
“If we have kept the range of our missiles to 2,000 kilometers, it’s not due to lack of technology. ... We are following a strategic doctrine,” Brigadier General Hossein Salami said, according to Fars.
“So far we have felt that Europe is not a threat, so we did not increase the range of our missiles. But if Europe wants to turn into a threat, we will increase the range of our missiles,” he added.
The head of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards military force, Major General Mohammad Ali Jafari, said last month that Iran’s 2,000-kilometre missile range could cover “most of American interest and forces” within the region, so Iran did not need to extend it.
Jafari said the ballistic missile range was based on the limits set by the country’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who is the head of armed forces.
Iran has one of the Middle East’s largest missile programs and some of its precision-guided missiles have the range to strike Israel. 

“POLITICAL AND SPIRITUAL” SUPPORT 

The United States accused Iran this month of supplying Yemen’s Houthi rebels with a missile that was fired into Saudi Arabia in July and called for the United Nationsto hold Tehran accountable for violating two U.N. Security council resolutions.
Iran has denied supplying the Houthis with missiles and weapons.
“Yemen is in total blockade. How could we have given them any missile?“ Salami said, according to the Fars report on Saturday. ”If Iran can send a missile to Yemen, it shows the incapability of (the Saudi coalition). But we have not given them missiles.”
Salami said the Houthis managed to increase the range and precision of their missiles in a “scientific breakthrough.”
Jafari, the head of the Revolutionary Guards, said on Thursday that Iran only provides “advisory and spiritual” assistances to the Houthis.
Iran long denied sending fighters to Syria to help President Bashar al-Assad in the fight against the rebels, and said the Revolutionary Guards’ presence on the ground was advisory
In what seemed to be a correction of Jafari’s comments, Salami said on Saturday that Iran’s support for the Houthis was “political and spiritual.”
The United States has imposed unilateral sanctions on Iran, saying its missile tests violate a U.N. resolution that calls on Tehran not to undertake activities related to missiles capable of delivering nuclear weapons.
The United States says Iran’s missile program is a breach of international law because the missiles could carry nuclear warheads in the future.
Iran denies it is seeking nuclear weapons and says its nuclear program is for civilian uses only.