Iran to stop weapons shipment to Houthis in Yemen - WSJ

Iran has stopped its weapons shipments to its Houthi allies in Yemen as part of the China-brokered deal to re-establish diplomatic ties with Saudi Arabia, The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday, citing US and Saudi Arabian officials.

By ending the weapons sales and shipments, it could "put pressure on the militant group to reach a deal to end the conflict," the WSJ said.

Saudi Arabia intervened in Yemen in 2015 to prevent the Houthis from taking over a swath of the country. Since then, Iran has supplied the Houthis with missile and drone technology used to target Saudi Arabia.

Earlier this week, the special UN envoy for Yemen, Hans Grundberg, flew to Tehran to discuss their role in ending the conflict. The special US envoy for Yemen Tim Lenderking met with Saudi officials in Riyadh to also make an attempt to bring back peace talks.

The officials said that the top priority is to extend the cease-fire in Yemen that has been going on for almost a year. The truce initially expired in October but the rival side has continued to honor the terms.

Seizing weapons off the coast of Yemen

Over the past few months, the US military has seized ships that were carrying thousands of assault rifles, millions of ammunition, antitank missiles and other things that they could use to make explosives that were all sent by Iran for its Houthis allies.

Britain's Royal Navy said it had seized Iranian weapons, including anti-tank guided missiles, last month from a smugglers' vessel in international waters in the Gulf of Oman.

Britain said the vessel was detected traveling south from Iran at high speed during the hours of darkness by an unmanned US intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance plane and was also tracked by a British helicopter.

When hailed by the Royal Navy, the vessel initially attempted to navigate to Iranian territorial waters but was stopped by a team of Royal Marines.