Once an obscure port that exported fruits and vegetables to Oman, Jask is a small town in Iran’s southeast that has grown in significance in the past decade. In 2008, it started hosting a naval base, and an oil-export terminal opened there last year.
U.S. officials said Jask has been used as a departure point for Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps for some time, but the U.N. report provides the first detailed evidence about specific arms shipments tied to the port.
Yemeni Houthis’ ability to obtain smuggled weapons has helped give the group the upper hand in a seven-year civil war, the report said, despite the intervention of Saudi Arabia and an Arab coalition that has used air power to pound rebel positions. The Houthis control Yemen’s capital, San’a, and its major port, Hodeidah, and are closing in on the oil-rich city of Marib.