Major arms exporter France sides with US over Iran’s alleged support for Yemen fighters

France says it is taking seriously US allegations that Iran provides missiles to Yemeni fighters, amid Washington’s intensified weapons support for Riyadh, which is engaged in over two years of a deadly military campaign against its southern impoverished neighbor.  

“We take these American indications seriously and attach utmost importance to Iran’s compliance with all of its international obligations, including the weapons’ transfer bans provided for in UN Security Council Resolutions 2216 and 2231,” French Deputy Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexandre Georgini told reporters in a briefing on Wednesday.

The remarks came a day after US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley accused Iran of supplying Yemen’s Houthi Ansarullah fighters with a missile that was fired into Saudi Arabia in July. She added that a missile shot down over Saudi Arabia on Saturday “may also be of Iranian origin.”

Senior Iranian officials have categorically denied as baseless the allegations leveled by the US about the Islamic Republic’s provision of missiles to Yemeni forces.

Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Commander Major General Mohammad Ali Jafari said that Iran had no means of transferring missiles to Yemen, noting that missiles used by Yemeni forces belonged to themselves and they had only increased their range.

PressTV-‘US claims about Iran missiles in Yemen baseless’

The IRGC chief commander says the US president’s allegations about Iran’s missiles in Yemen are baseless.

Meanwhile, Iran's Defense Minister Brigadier General Amir Hatami also rejected reports about Iran’s involvement in the Saturday missile attack on a Saudi airport.

Saudi's major arms suppliers amid Yemen aggression

The allegations of missiles supply to Yemeni forces are leveled against Iran while the Saudi-led coalition itself says it has entirely blockaded Yemen, making impossible any transfer of items whatsoever, be it humanitarian aid or arms supplies.  

Moreover, France’s supports for the United States, the world’s number one arms exporter, comes as a surprise as the European country, alongside the US and the UK, has itself been among the major arms suppliers to Saudi Arabia.

According to the Control Arms Coalition, France, the world’s fourth weapons exporter, authorized arms licenses worth $18 billion to Saudi Arabia in 2015 -- the year Riyadh launched its military campaign against Yemen -- followed by the United States at $5.9 billion and Britain’s $4 billion.

Saudi Arabia is the primary destination for US arms sales, according to the Council on Foreign Relations.

Back in March, the United States approved resumption in the $300 million sale of US-made precision-guided missiles to Saudi Arabia.

Last month, the US State Department also approved the possible sale of an anti-missile system to Saudi Arabia at an estimated cost of $15 billion, the Pentagon said.

The approval opens the way for Saudi Arabia to purchase 44 Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) launchers and 360 missiles, as well as fire control stations and radars.

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