UAE seizes illegal arms shipment from North Korea to Iran

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has discovered and seized a ship said to have been carrying an illegal cargo of North Korean weapons destined for Iran. The shipment is a violation of a UN embargo.

Speaking under cover of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the issue, a UAE diplomat said the government has informed the Sanctions Committee of the UN Security Council it seized the ship. According to Le Figaro, that committee is in charge of the application of sanctions that have been imposed upon North Korea. Iran is also under various arms and trade embargoes. "The question is in the hands of the Committee right now," the UAE diplomat said. He refused to discuss any other details of the incident. As the Financial Times reports:

Diplomats said the vessel was still being held in the UAE, where the authorities are understood to have found various forms of basic weaponry, including rocket-propelled grenades, which had been labelled as machine parts. It was up to the UAE to dispose of the cargo of weapons found on board and no further action by the committee was required, they said.

CNN reports in an update of it's article on the affair that the cargo, which was aboard a vessel owned by an Australian subsidiary of a French company, was sailing under the Bahamian flag with material exported by an Italian company with offices in China. The UAE is regarded as a strong US ally. The region expresses concern about Iran’s nuclear powers, but the seven-member federation often acts tactfully because the Islamic republic is a major trading partner. Dubai is also home to more than 300,000 Iranian expatriates