Antiaircraft weapons found on Iranian regime’s dhow for Yemen

NCRI - An Iranian regime’s dhow seized in January off the Yemeni coast was carrying at least 10 sophisticated Chinese heat-seeking antiaircraft missiles.

The shipment, which US officials portray as an attempt to introduce sophisticated new antiaircraft systems into the Arabian Peninsula, has raised concerns in Saudi Arabia, Oman and Yemen, as the weapons would have posed escalated risks to civilian and military aircraft alike, The New York Times reported on Sunday.

The missiles were labeled QW-1M and bore stencils suggesting that they had been assembled at a factory represented by a state-owned corporation, sanctioned by the United States for transfers of missile technology to Iranian regime.


The analysis of the weapons’ markings and origins was based on photographs taken when Yemeni officials briefly displayed the weapons to journalists.

The latest discovery of Chinese weapons came after the United States Navy detected the dhow, the Jeehan 1, as it took on cargo in an Iranian regime military-controlled port. The vessel then embarked on a high-seas smuggling run, according to accounts by Yemeni and American officials.

The military cargo, which included many ammunition crates that had been painted over with white or black paint, was found in hidden compartments, American officials said.

That cargo also included 316,000 cartridges for Kalashnikov rifles, nearly 63,000 cartridges for PK machine guns or the Dragunov series of sniper rifles, more than 12,000 cartridges for 12.7-millimeter DShK machine guns and 95 RPG-7 launchers.
The vessel also carried 10 SA-7 shoulder-fired antiaircraft missiles with two gripstocks for firing them, nearly 17,000 blocks of Iranian-made C-4 plastic explosives, 48 Russian PN-14K night vision goggles, and 10 LH80A laser range finders made, according to their placards, by the state-run Iran Electronics Industries, also under American sanction.

An American official called the shipment “deeply disturbing” and said it “clearly appeared to violate” Security Council resolutions prohibiting Iran from exporting arms, The Times report said.