Houthi arms came from Saleh, not Iran

[Jefferson23]

Gareth Porter says claims Iran is supplying Houthis with weapons ignore group was flush with American arms from ex-president Saleh - April 25, 2015

Bio

Gareth Porter is a historian and investigative journalist specializing in US foreign and military policy. He writes regularly for Inter Press Service on US policy towards Iraq and Iran. He is the author of five books, of which the latest is Manufactured Crisis: The Untold Story of the Iran Nuclear Scare.

Transcript

JAY: So what do you make of these reports that apparently there's an Iranian ship on its way to Yemen, there were claims coming from the White House and others that there was Iranian weapons for the Houthis on it. The Iranians as far as I know denied it. What do you know about this?

PORTER: Well first of all, that whole notion that there was a flotilla of Iranian ships on the way to Yemen to deliver arms was completely manufactured. I mean, there's absolutely no evidence whatsoever that those ships were on their way to Yemen, that they were supposed to deliver anything, let alone arms to Yemen. I mean, the Iranians actually said that the ships were there as part of a effort to suppress piracy. Whether that was true or not I don't know, but the idea that they were there to deliver arms is simply something that was created by the news media without any evidence whatsoever. And--.

JAY: Well, it's not just by the news media because it's coming out of the White House as well.

PORTER: Well, I--you know, the initial announcement by the Pentagon of the fact that the Pentagon was sending another ship, the USS George Washington, to waters offshore of Yemen was not specifically for the purpose of intercepting arms. They did not mention the idea that there were arms on the way to Yemen. Certainly there's been no indication that they had any information to that effect. And what they said was that it was, in fact, an effort to reassure. It was part of a reassurance of the Saudis that the United States was in a position to have all the options necessary to deal with the situation in Yemen. So it was not, in fact, even intended or said to be intended initially and officially to intercept arms.

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