US Considers Sending Ukraine Thousands Of Smuggled Iranian Weapons, A Million Rounds Of Ammo

The U.S. is reportedly considering sending Ukraine thousands of seized weapons and more than a million rounds of ammunition allegedly once set to be sent to Iran-backed militants in Yemen.

This was reported by the Wall Street Journal, which cited unnamed U.S. and European officials.

The unprecedented move would help Western allies supply Ukraine with firearms amid their struggles to find military supplies as the Russian invasion nears its first anniversary, Ukrainska Pravda reported.

U.S. officials reportedly said they plan to send more than 5,000 assault rifles, 1.6 million rounds of small arms ammunition, a handful of antitank missiles and more than 7,000 proximity fuses that were seized from smugglers allegedly working for Iran.

But the plan faces a legal hurdle as the United Nations arms embargo requires the U.S. and its allies to destroy, store or get rid of the seized Iranian weapons.

This is the challenge the Biden administration is currently looking at. White House lawyers are reportedly trying to find a legal justification or a loophole that would enable them to transfer the seized weapons to Ukraine.

The U.S. and France seized the firearms and ammunition in recent months off the Yemen coast from smugglers suspected of working for Iran as part of a global effort to block the Islamic country from supplying its Houthi allies with firearms in an ongoing conflict with the Saudi-backed government.

The seized Iranian weapons triggered a discussion among U.S. officials about whether they could be used in Ukraine as part of the West's military assistance to the beleaguered country in its fight against Russia.

One unnamed U.S. official told WSJ that this could also be an opportunity for the U.S. to turn the tables on Iran, which reportedly sent drones to Russia in the months before the start of its invasion of Ukraine.

"It's a message to take weapons meant to arm Iran's proxies and flip them to achieve our priorities in Ukraine, where Iran is providing arms to Russia," the U.S. official said.

This week, members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) met in Brussels, Belgium, to discuss how to speed up the delivery of military supplies going to Ukraine amid reports that Russia has already launched another major offensive.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said Ukraine's weapons consumption rate is putting their defense industries "under strain" and depleting their stockpiles.

Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas suggested that European Union member states purchase weapons for Ukraine together as they did when they bought COVID-19 vaccines in bulk.

NATO is also under pressure from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who urged allies to supply his country with fighter jets to boost Ukraine's capabilities to counter Russian attacks.

In his speech during his visit to Paris, France, Zelensky said the "sooner our pilots get planes," the sooner the war would end.

Experts said providing fighter jets to Ukraine would allow the country to strike inside the Russian territory and make it harder for Russian bomber jets to launch attacks inside the Ukrainian territory.

But Stoltenberg said sending military aircraft to Ukraine would "take time."