US seeking information about Iranian commander in Yemen

Shaimaa Hefzi

The United States allocated on December 5 a prize of $15 million to whoever provides it with information about a commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corpse in Yemen.

The State Department’s Special Envoy to Iran, Brian Hook, said at a press briefing on Thursday that the targeted commander was involved in the smuggling of Iranian arms to Yemen’s Houthi militia and planning attacks in the region. However, Hook did not name this commander.

The Iranian regime, Hook said, had killed hundreds of Iranians during the latest wave of protests.

He added that the regime had also committed a series of human rights violations.

The US calls for the release of all detainees in Iranian jails, Hook said.

He revealed that the Iranian regime continued to provide its regional arms with weapons and missiles.

Iran, he said, had to stop its interference in Yemen.

US battleship and Iranian rockets

US officials said on December 4 that an Americans battleship had succeeded in seizing a shipment of Iranian arms in the Arabian Sea. They added that the shipment included upgraded rockets.

The seizure of the shipments came at a time the administration of US President Donald Trump is ramping up pressure on Iran to suspend its destabilizing role in the region.

Reuters quoted an unnamed US official as saying that preliminary information about the shipment show that it was headed to the Houthi militia, which is allied to Iran.

This was not the first time the US navy had intercepted arms shipments to the Houthis.

Unending tension

In the light of UN-imposed sanctions, Iran cannot either sell or transfer arms outside it, as long as it does not have UN approval.

A Pentagon official expected earlier Iran to carry out hostile acts in the future. This is especially true with the tensions between Iran and the US getting more intense.

On Thursday, Iran rejected European demands for slowing down its nuclear and ballistic missile programs.

The ambassadors of the UK, Germany, and France at the UN accused Iran of violating the 2015 nuclear deal with world powers by maintaining its ballistic missile program.