Trump’s UN envoy says “undeniable” evidence proves Iran is violating international law by funneling missiles to Houthi rebels in Yemen.
By World Israel News Staff
AP contributed to this report.
Addressing a press conference at Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling military installation in Washington on Thursday, US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley provided “undeniable” evidence that Iran is violating international law by funneling missiles to Houthi rebels in Yemen.
Haley unveiled recently declassified evidence, based on a new UN report, including segments of missiles launched at Saudi Arabia from Houthi-controlled territory in Yemen.
The US welcomes the UN report, “as should every nation concerned about Iranian expansion,” she said. “We are grateful for the depth of the UN’s inspection and analysis… The report provides devastating evidence of missiles, conventional arms, and explosive boats of Iranian origin used by the rebels in Yemen – all of which violate UN resolutions.”
The ambassador repeated Trump’s announcement in October that the US was “taking a new approach to Iran by focusing on all of the regime’s destabilizing behavior. That means we are focused not just on the nuclear program. We’re also taking a hard look at Iran’s ballistic missile program, its arms exports, and its support for terrorists, proxy fighters, and dictators.”
She explained that this “strategy was prompted by the undeniable fact that the Iranian regime’s behavior is growing worse. The nuclear deal has done nothing to moderate the regime’s conduct in other areas.”
Just four days ago, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Zarif wrote an op-ed claiming Iran has been complying with international law and that its military activities were purely defensive, Haley told the conference.
The international community was “looking the other way” because of the nuclear deal, the ambassador charged.
‘This missile was used to attack a civilian airport’
She then pointed to “concrete evidence of illegal Iranian weapons proliferation, gathered from direct military attacks on our partners in the region.”
“Behind me is an example of one of these attacks,” she continued, showing “recovered pieces of a missile fired by Houthi militants from Yemen into Saudi Arabia. The missile’s intended target was the civilian airport in Riyadh, through which tens of thousands of passengers travel each day.”
“I repeat: This missile was used to attack an international civilian airport in a G-20 country,” she stressed.
“Just imagine if this missile had been launched at Dulles Airport or JFK, or the airports in Paris, London, or Berlin. That’s what we’re talking about here. That’s what Iran is actively supporting.”
The envoy then described aspects of the missile identifying it beyond a doubt as originating from Iran.
‘The fight against Iran is the world’s fight’
“It was an unusual step for the US to declassify military equipment recovered from these attacks,” Haley said. “But today we are taking an extraordinary step of presenting it here in an open setting. We did this for a single, urgent purpose: because the Iranian regime cannot be allowed to engage in its lawless behavior any longer. International peace and security depends on us working together against the Iranian regime’s hostile actions.
“The fight against Iranian aggression is the world’s fight. The United States is acting today in the spirit of transparency and international cooperation that is necessary to defeat this threat.”
Danny Danon, Israel’s ambassador to the UN, issued a statement, saying the new revelations “proved yet again that Iran’s dangerous presence in the Middle East is only growing despite their attempts to deceive the world. The threat of Iranian missiles stretches from the Persian Gulf, through Yemen, Syria and all the way to Lebanon and Gaza. The dangers emanating from Iran are unacceptable and it is imperative that the United Nations and the international community act immediately to ensure an end to these threats.”