3/12/2018 5:08:21 AM
Mattis emphasised past and ongoing international efforts to interject Iranian shipments to the Houthis French, Australian and US Navy forces in the area.
The National- 12 Mach 2018- US Defense Secretary James Mattis has arrived in Oman and will meet Sultan Qaboos on Monday, with the pair set to discuss a packed agenda that includes arms trafficking into Yemen, defence relations and counterterrorism.
On his first trip to Oman as Pentagon chief, Mr Mattis said in a gaggle with reporters on Sunday that he will “find out” from his Omani counterparts “how they assess any [arms] trafficking that’s going on at all [into Yemen].”
Asked by a reporter if Oman is either looking the other way or being complicit in providing weapons or allowing weapons to go through the porous border into Yemen, Mr Mattis said that the Omanis “have been on the record that they want to see this civil war stopped for obvious reasons.”
These reasons, Mr Mattis explained, entail counterterrorism and mutual security concerns. “I’m going there to listen, like I started off with, and find out how they assess any trafficking that’s going on at all. What is their assessment? What is their view of routes and that sort of thing?” Mr Mattis said.
He also emphasised past and ongoing international efforts to interject Iranian shipments to the Houthis by French, Australian and US Navy forces in the area.
“I will be going in to talk to the Sultan, who obviously has a keen role in all of this, because he’s got a border with this country. And so I need to go in and find out how they assess it”, he added.
The EU-funded organisation Conflict Armament Research (CAR) issued a report last Spring that points to Oman as a major route by land and sea for Iran to transfer arms to Houthis.
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