Iran is accused of supplying Libya with weapons and breaching the UN arms embargo

Iran has been accused of supplying Libya with weapons, worsening the conflict and breaching the arms embargo by the United Nations. The claims were made on the basis of an in-depth analysis of the images of four anti-tank guided missiles discovered in Libya. According to the report submitted to the Security Council by the UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, all four tanks “had characteristics consistent with those produced by Iran in Dehlavieh.”

“In its biannual report submitted to the Council late on Monday, Guterres said, “Based on the Secretariat’s review of the photographs given, the Secretariat found that one of the four anti-tank guided missiles had characteristics consistent with the Iranian-made Dehlavieh, although there was no visible production date for this anti-tank guided missile.”The Secretariat is unable to ascertain whether in a manner inconsistent with resolution 2231 (2015), this anti-tank guided missile has been transferred to Libya,” the report said.

The UN investigation team continues to fail to decide when these tanks were transported to Libya, as the UN imposed sanctions on Iran in 2007 to prevent its weapons exports. Although this restriction was lifted in October 2020 as part of the clause referred to in the nuclear agreement of 2015, signed between Tehran and world powers.

Israel, which raised the issue, took pictures of weapons discovered in Libya before the 15-member UN Council in May. Israel accused Iran of breaching the sanctions and ordered that due action be taken against them. Iran reached out to Guterres just weeks after Israel’s appeal to the United Nations and wrote that Tehran “categorically rejected” the Israeli allegations as “totally unfounded.”

Independent UN experts backed the conclusions of the Guterres study and said that the Iranian produced Dehlavieh anti-tank guided missile system had been discovered in the hands of a GNA-affiliated armed group. The experts added that the “non-compliance” with the UN weapons embargo on Libya was the transfer of the missile system, but did not say who had transferred the arms.This is the first time that Iran’s name has appeared in relation to the worsening crisis in Libya, while the Islamic Republic has been accused in the past of similar involvement in Syria, Iraq and Yemen.