A LARGE shipment of advanced weaponry from Iran to the Houthis was intercepted by Yemeni government forces.

Tariq Saleh, vice chairman of the Presidential Leadership Council and commander of the National Resistance Forces, revealed the seizure on Wednesday, although it was not immediately clear when it took place. The Presidential Leadership Council is the executive arm of Yemen’s internationally recognised government.

The shipment included “750 tonnes of weapons, including naval and aerial missile systems, an air defence system, modern radars, drones, eavesdropping devices, anti-armour missiles, B-10 artillery, tracking lenses, sniper rifles and ammunition, and other military equipment”, Saleh said on social media platform X (Lloyd’s List used AI to translate the original post).

US Central Command congratulated Saleh and the NRF in a post on X on Wednesday, saying the interception marked “the largest seizure of Iranian advanced conventional weapons in their history”. Citing the NRF, Centcom said manuals in Farsi were found on board the vessel, and that “many of the systems were manufactured by a company affiliated with the Iranian Ministry of Defence that is sanctioned by the US”.

Centcom commander General Michael Kurilla said: “We commend the legitimate government forces of Yemen who continue to interdict the flow of Iranian munitions bound for the Houthis. The interdiction of this massive Iranian shipment shows that Iran remains the most destabilising actor in the region.”

A recent Lloyd’s List analysis revealed how vessels that sailed from Iran to Houthi-controlled ports in Yemen employed sophisticated deceptive shipping practices to avoid detection.