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Al-Monitor — The US has sent Ukraine’s military 1.1 million rounds of small arms ammunition which the US Navy seized from smugglers tied to Iran in the Gulf of Oman last year.
The US Navy confiscated the 7.62mm rounds, which can be fired by Kalashnikov assault rifles, in December 2022 from an unmarked dhow bound for Yemen’s Houthi rebels, the military said Wednesday.
The ammunition, which the US said was sent by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, was handed over to Ukraine’s armed forces on Monday following months of internal legal deliberations within the Biden administration.
“The government obtained ownership of these munitions on July 20, 2023 through the Department of Justice’s civil forfeiture claims against Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps,” US Central Command said Wednesday. “The munitions were being transferred from the IRGC to the Houthis in Yemen in violation of the United Nations Security Council Resolution 2216,” which constitutes an arms embargo on Yemen amid that country’s ongoing civil war.
Why it matters: The shipment comes as the Biden administration scrambles to source additional arms for Kyiv amid infighting in Congress that has threatened to delay the flow of US supplies to the Ukrainian military.
The new ammunition is unlikely to make an immediate difference in Ukraine’s ongoing counteroffensive to push back Russia’s forces, but it does set new precedent for Washington in what increasingly looks like a drawn-out conflict pitting Ukraine’s defenders and their Western backers against Russia’s superior pace of weapons manufacturing.
House lawmakers narrowly averted a government shutdown in a last-minute vote on Saturday but stripped weapons funding for Ukraine from the resolution. President Joe Biden convened a virtual meeting to reassure allied leaders on Tuesday amid the political fracas in Washington.
Pentagon deputy press secretary Sabrina Singh said Tuesday that the department is seeking Congressional authorization to continue funding weapons to Ukraine, but would not put a timeline on how long remains before the current $5.4 billion in authorized funding runs out.
“It really depends on what Ukraine requests,” Singh told reporters, noting that the department has just $1.6 billion left to replenish the US’ own stockpiles of ammunition.
White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby suggested Tuesday that the currently authorized funding could last a “couple of weeks” or months.
What’s next: It’s not yet clear whether the US may send additional Iranian arms seized by the US Navy to Ukraine.
Know more: The US is increasingly relying on allies to interdict the flow of Iranian arms to Yemen’s Houthi rebels, which officials say has continued despite the country’s fragile ceasefire.
