Saudi Arabia welcomed the U.S. stance on Iran's missile supplies to Yemen's Houthis and demanded immediate action to hold Tehran accountable for its actions.
"The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia welcomes the U.N. report that asserted that the hostile Iranian intervention and its support for the terrorist Houthi militia with advanced and dangerous missile capabilities threatens the security and stability of the kingdom and the region," state news agency SPA reported.
SPA said the evidence, which emerged after the Houthis fired a missile towards the capital Riyadh last month, was proof of violations of U.N. Security Council Resolutions 2216 and 2231 on Yemen, and 1559 and 1701, which relate to Lebanon.
"The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia demands the international community to take immediate measures to implement the aforementioned Security Council resolutions and to hold the Iranian regime accountable for its hostile actions," it said.
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley on Thursday stood before a missile fragment, calling it “concrete” evidence, while claiming it bore Iran’s fingerprints and said that the country posed a "a threat to the peace and security of the entire world."
Haley suggested stronger international sanctions against Iran.
The United States acknowledged it could not say precisely when the weapons were transferred to the Houthis, and, in some cases, could not say when they were used. There was no immediate way to independently verify where the weapons were made or employed.
Iran has denied supplying the Houthis with such weaponry and on Thursday described the arms displayed as "fabricated."
Saudi Arabia accuses Iran of smuggling missiles to the Houthis through ports used to deliver humanitarian aid and food shipments to Yemen. It said the evidence means the United Nations should tighten its inspection and verification regime for vessels allowed into Yemen.
Iran rejected the U.S. accusations as unfounded and Iran's Foreign Minister Javad Zarif, on Twitter, drew a parallel to assertions by then-U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell to the United Nations in 2003 about U.S. intelligence on weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. No weapons of mass destruction were found in Iraq after the U.S.-led invasion.
All of the recovered weapons were provided to the United States by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, the Pentagon said. Saudi-led forces, which back the Yemeni government, have been fighting the Houthis in Yemen's more than two-year-long civil war.
