Tehran - (AFP) - Iran denied on Friday what the British and US navies announced regarding the seizure of Iranian weapons aboard a smuggling boat that was apparently heading to Yemen, describing it as "false allegations".

The Foreign Ministry accused the two Western countries of trying to divert attention from their arming of a Saudi-led coalition that has been waging a devastating campaign against the Iran-backed Houthi rebels since 2015.

"The countries that are the largest exporters of weapons and equipment to troubled regions in the world are trying to mislead world public opinion through allegations and false news," ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani said in a statement.
He added, "Countries that send weapons worth billions of dollars to an aggressor coalition and cause the killing of the Yemeni people and the destruction of their country, cannot exonerate themselves by accusing others."

"These countries, instead of pointing to the wrong place, making false allegations, and evading their responsibility in the war imposed on the defenseless and oppressed Yemeni people, must abandon their approach of searching for opportunities and realizing interests in this war," he said.

On Thursday, the British Navy announced that it had seized, on February 23, with the help of the US Navy, "Iranian" anti-tank missiles and components used in the manufacture of ballistic missiles from a boat in the Gulf waters during an attempt to smuggle them.

The boat was pursued, arrested and weapons were confiscated in an area located in southern Iran, while the smugglers, whose fate or nationalities were not clear, were trying to advance at night on a sea route usually used to smuggle weapons to Yemen, as the same source explained.

Riyadh accuses Iran of smuggling weapons to its allies in Yemen, but Tehran says its support for them is political.

The weapons seized include Iranian-made anti-tank guided missiles, similar to the Russian Kornet, and components for medium-range ballistic missiles, according to the British Navy.

For its part, the US Navy said in a statement that it provided intelligence support in the field of surveillance to the British Navy, noting that the boat was on "a route used historically to illegally smuggle weapons into Yemen."

And she added that in the past three months, seven pursuit operations by the US Navy and allied forces led to the seizure of more than 5,000 weapons, 1.6 million rounds of ammunition, 7,000 missile components, and narcotics with a market value of about $80 million.

"We will continue to work with our partners in pursuing any destabilizing activity that threatens regional maritime security and stability," said Vice Admiral Brad Cooper, commander of the US Naval Forces Central Command, the US Fifth Fleet in Bahrain and the Combined Maritime Forces.