DION NISSENBAUM
April 12, 2015
American official says Tehran is trying to supply surface-to-air missiles
Iranian vessels prepared to leave Iran’s territorial waters on April 7 to patrol the region’s waterways. PHOTO: FARS NEWS AGENCY/ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON—U.S. naval forces in the Red Sea this month boarded a freighter suspected of delivering Iranian weapons to Houthi rebels in Yemen, American military officials said.
The destroyer USS Sterett’s search of the Panamanian-flagged Saisaban on April 1 came up empty. But the officials said it marked the U.S. Navy’s first boarding operation in an expanding campaign to ensure Iran doesn’t supply game-changing weapons such as surface-to-air missiles that would threaten Saudi-led airstrikes on the Houthis.
The airstrikes began two weeks ago after Houthi rebels, who have taken over the capital and overrun much of the country, forced American-backed President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi to flee the country.
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