A United Nations report revealed that Iran has been arming the Houthis since 2009, confirming accusations made by Arab and Western countries against Tehran regarding its support of the Houthis who have been in control of Yemeni state institutions since last September.
The details were revealed in an UN report by a panel of experts was presented to the Security Council's Iran Sanctions Committee at a time when the UN is seeking to broker a return to peace talks.
The panel of experts based their report on the findings of an investigation into the Yemeni authorities' seizure of an arms shipment on board an Iranian ship, the Jihan.
The information collected by the experts in the report suggests that the Jihan case is consistent with a pattern of weapons shipments to Yemen by sea that can be traced back to 2009.
The report mentions an example of an Iranian fishing boat that had attempted to secretly ship hundreds of anti-tank and anti-helicopter rockets to the Houthis.
It also confirms that Iran is the source of these shipments and that the potential recipients are the Houthis or perhaps other parties in neighbouring countries.
It is worth noting that the UN issued a resolution in 2007 prohibiting Iran from selling weapons and instructs all countries to take action to prevent any arms flow from Iran.
Various Arab and Western counties have accused Iran of meddling in Yemeni affairs by supporting the Houthis, but Tehran denies these accusations, describing the Saudi-led Operation Decisive Storm in Yemen as "aggression".
Earlier this month, US Secretary of State John Kerry said that his country knows that Iran is supporting the Houthis, but he noted that Washington will not stand idly by nor will it abandon its allies in the region.
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