Al Houthis Yemen_2
File picture: Al Houthi rebels chant slogans during rally in Sanaa, Yemen, on August 22, 2020. Image Credit: AP

Abu Dhabi: The legitimate Yemeni government urged on Saturday the need to extend the arms embargo against Tehran after busting a Houthi cell that confessed to smuggling weapons from Iran.

In a series of tweets, Information Minister Moammar Al Eryani said the cell admitted to receiving training in Iran and to having connections to the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps.

"This is damning evidence of Iranian complicity in running smuggling operations and supporting the militias with weapons (ballistic missiles and drones) to implement their destructive agenda in the region," he said.

The confessions confirm that the Houthis were exploiting the Stockholm agreement on Hodeidah in order to use the coastal city’s ports "to smuggle Iranian weapons, escalate their terrorist military operations in Yemen and target civilians in Saudi Arabia and oil and trade ships in the Red Sea," he said.

Moreover, the minister said the Iranian regime’s ongoing smuggling of arms to the Houthis was a flagrant violation of relevant international resolutions on Yemen.