Bab al-Mandab, Yemen 0
13 February 2020

The U.S. contended that the UN Security Council’s Final Report of the Panel of Experts on Yemen supported “the conclusion of the U.S., France, Germany, and the United Kingdom that Iran bears responsibility” for the 14 September attack on Saudi oil facilities, arguing that since then “Iran has continued its program of terrorism, nuclear extortion and destabilising behaviour”. “The Security Council,” the statement added, “now has less than 36 weeks until the October expiration of the UN arms embargo to renew sanctions forbidding the sale of certain weapons systems to Iran”. According to the UN report, “despite claims to the contrary, the Huthi forces are unlikely to be responsible for the [September 2019] attack, as the estimated range of the weapon systems used does not allow for a launch from Huthi-controlled territory. Nevertheless, a number of other attacks on Saudi Arabia can clearly be attributed to the Houthi forces”. The Panel also reported “the continued reception by Huthi forces of military support” and indicated that “some of those weapons have technical characteristics similar to arms manufactured in the Islamic Republic of Iran”.

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