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Pentagon Declines to Comment on Video Showing US Weapons Arriving in Yemen - Spokesman

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - US media reported earlier on Wednesday that newly obtained video footage shows an Oshkosh armored vehicle and other US-made military hardware being unloaded from a ship under the cover of darkness in the early morning hours at the port in the southern city of Aden.
Sputnik

The Pentagon declined to comment on Wednesday when asked about the authenticity of a newly published video that reportedly shows US-made heavy weaponry arriving in southern Yemen last week.

"We cannot comment on the authenticity of the video", a spokesperson for the US Department of Defence said.

The Pentagon spokesperson said, however, that the US expects all recipients of American origin defense equipment to abide by their end-use obligations and not retransfer equipment without prior US government authorization.

"We cannot comment on any potential or ongoing investigations of claims of end-use violations of defense articles and services transferred to our allies and partners", the pskoesperson added.

The vessel, identified as the Saudi-registered Bahri Hofuf, is known to have stopped at the Port City of Jeddah on 17 September before sailing on to Port Sudan the following day, CNN said, citing port documents, tracking data, and whistleblower accounts.

The ship's tracking system was then turned off before being switched on again in Aden on 29 October, the media report said.

Under US law, recipients of American-made arms are forbidden from transferring equipment to third parties without prior authorization from Washington.

CNN in February claimed citing what they described as "evidence" that Saudi Arabia and its coalition partners gave militants - linked to the al-Qaeda terrorist group, Salafi militias and other factions in Yemen - weapons that were manufactured by the United States, in breach of its arms agreements with Washington.

The report prompted the US Congress in July to pass three measures aimed at blocking arms sales to Saudi Arabia and the UAE, but President Donald Trump later vetoed the legislation.

The armed conflict in Yemen between government forces led by President Abdrabuh Mansour Hadi and the Houthi movement has been ongoing since 2015. The United Nations has repeatedly called the Yemeni conflict the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, with an estimated 24 million people - nearly 80 percent of the country’s population - currently in need of aid and protection.

*al-Qaeda is a terrorist group banned in Russia and many other states.

 

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