US Claims Four Arms Ships From Iran to Yemen Caught in Past 18 Months

Vice Admiral Kevin Donegan today claimed the US and other members of the Saudi-led naval blockade of Yemen had captured four ships with arms which they are claiming both came from Iran and were bound for Yemen, where they would’ve delivered the weapons to the Houthi movement.

The vice admiral claimed the US “knows” both where the ships came from and where they were going because they interviewed the crews of the captured ships. Only one of the four putative weapons ships was validated by the United Nations as being an actual smuggling attempt.

Donegan went on to claim that he believes Iran is “connected in some way” to recent incidents of missiles fired at a US ship off the Yemeni coast, though the Pentagon conceded one of those incidents likely never happened, and he offered no evidence of Iranian involvement in anything else.

The allegations were likely made by way of justifying US attacks on the Yemeni coast, as well as justifying Saudi Arabia’s ongoing naval blockade of Yemen, which Saudi Arabia recently denied is happening.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.