Oman..Iran's bridge to support terrorism in Yemen

English - Wednesday 17 August 2022 الساعة 03:58 pm
Aden, NewsYemen, Hadeel Muhammad:

The Sultanate of Oman opened its bosom early to the leaders of the terrorist Houthi militia, and later opened it to the Brotherhood leaders who were dismissed from their positions in the legitimate government because of their corruption, so that the leaders of the Houthi and the Brotherhood gathered there, and united their efforts in attacking the Arab coalition, and calling for its expulsion from Yemen, to enable the Iranian arm to extend its control  on liberated areas.

Oman refused to classify the Houthis as a terrorist group, after their coup against power in 2014, and supported them to become a party to the course of political negotiations. Muscat became the regional headquarters of the leaders of the coup militia, from which they send threats and attack the Arab coalition.

Just as the Sultanate financed the armed Brotherhood sit-ins against the presence of the Arab coalition forces in Al-Mahra, it was the bridge that supplies the Houthis with weapons coming from Iran, as smuggling networks backed by Muscat in the Governorate of Al-Mahra run the smuggling of Iranian weapons to the Houthis from the beaches and areas adjacent to Oman.

Oman has worked at a high pace recently in the delivery of Iranian weapons to the Houthis, as several international reports revealed the arrival of various shipments of weapons to the coup militia across the Omani border with Yemen, including spare parts for missiles and drones, and the Yemeni authorities also seized dozens of shipments coming from Oman.  

The Foundation for Defense of American Democracies had earlier called on the Biden administration to demand the Sultanate of Oman to dismantle the regional headquarters of the Houthis operating within its borders, noting that the Houthis exploited their presence in Oman not only to legitimize their operations and access to the international financial system, but also to smuggle weapons to Yemen.

According to various reports, one of the Iranian arms smuggling routes to the Houthis passes through the Shahn area, which is considered a specific territory and a port of entry for Al-Mahra Governorate on the Omani border, which is 288 kilometers long.  Through land smuggling routes that pass through Al-Mahra and Al-Jawf and then reach Sana’a, in addition to smuggling by sea through Abyar Ali on the southern coasts, as well as through the Nishtun port with the Sultanate.

Conflict Armament Research reported in March 2017 that the Houthis had smuggled drones through Oman, and the United Nations stated in a 2018 report that Oman was the most likely route through which the Burkan 2H missiles reached Yemen.

The report of the United Nations Group of Experts, issued in January 2021, referred to the confiscation of smuggled weapons and components that arrived in Yemen by land from Salalah in 2019, adding that GPS data taken from the dhows of smugglers in 2020, indicating that arms smugglers are transporting them  From one ship to another inside Omani territorial waters.