Yemen denied on Saturday media reports that a UN panel will arrive Sunday in the country to investigate the latest violent events in some southern cities, state media reported, coinciding with sporadic riots and calls for civil disobedience in the south.
An official was quoted as saying the reports have been made by some people who are receiving financial support from Iran to destabilize the country for the sake of their subversive projects.
A UN team completed last week an investigation into an Iran-linked arms cargo and is expected to submit a report on the cargo in two weeks. In this regard, reports emerged today the crew of the Iranian ship, Jeehan 2 onboard which the weapons were seized, confessed to the UN team that Iran had told them to smuggle the weapons into Yemen. The eight crew members were all Yemenis.
However, no reports have been made about to whom in the country Iran had sent the weapons, which included very dangerous explosives and anti-aircraft missiles. Yemen has accused Iran of providing funds and weapons to the Shiite Houthi Group in the far north and some southern secessionist factions.
Aden and Hadramout provinces have seen deadly riots in the past few weeks amid intensifying calls to seek secessionism just as the country is gearing up for a comprehensive dialogue conference.
The dialogue will kick off on March 18 under the West-backed power-transfer deal which was brokered by the GCC after the 2011 unrest.
Separately, Yemen started on Saturday the trial of 18 Somalis who were arrested off the country on Thursday amid continuous exodus of migrants and refugees from horn of African countries.
The authorities seized weapons with the Somalis when they were arrested in the Socotra archipelago on the Arab sea.
The authorities are accusing the Somalis of fishing in Yemen’s territorial waters without licenses and randomly and they could face a charge of looting national wealth.
Last month, Yemeni prosecution referred 16 other Somalis to court on charges of entering the country without visas and committing illegal acts.