The Foreign Ministry strongly rejects the UK’s claim of intercepting an Iranian arms shipment that was heading for Yemen earlier this year.
Spokesman Nasser Kan’ani made the remarks on Thursday after a British government statement alleged that a UK “Royal Navy vessel” had interdicted a Yemen-bound cargo of “advanced Iranian missiles” in the Gulf of Oman in January.
He called the claim “baseless,” adding the UK, through its “incessant” sales of state-of-the-art weapons to the Saudi Arabia-led coalition that has been waging war on Yemen since 2015, is a “partner in the [coalition’s] aggression against the defenseless Yemeni people.”
Britain is, therefore, “not in a position to present such unfounded accusations against the Islamic Republic, thus assuming a humanitarian posture,” he asserted.
The British government alone has sold eight billion pounds ($9.6 million) worth of arms, including bombs, air-to-surface and cruise missiles, and warplanes to the invading countries since the launch of the invasion, the spokesman noted.
Britain has separately been issuing exclusive permits to the country’s arms manufacturers to sell weapons to the coalition, which increases the overall volume of the UK’s arms sales to the invaders multiple times, Kan’ani said.
The invasion has been seeking to restore Yemen’s power to the country’s former Saudi- and Western-aligned officials. It has killed tens of thousands of Yemenis in the process and turned the entire Yemen into the scene of the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
“In fact, Britain has trusted the invaders with these weapons, despite knowing that they would deploy them towards committing war crimes and attacking schools, hospitals, wedding ceremonies, and foodstuff storehouses,” Kan’ani said.
The UK’s weapons sales to the invaders is among the reasons behind the deadly aggression’s perpetuation, he said, adding, “Therefore, this country (the UK) is deprived of the moral competence [that is required] for laying such claims against the Islamic Republic.”
Source: Iranian media (edited by Al-Manar English Website)
