FRENCH naval forces seized thousands of assault rifles, machine guns and anti-tank missiles last month in the Gulf of Oman coming from Iran.

The French officials said on Thursday that the arms were heading to Yemen’s Houthi rebels.

While Iran denied being involved, images of the weapons released by the United States military’s Central Command showed them to be similar to others captured by US forces in other shipments tied to Tehran.

The announcement comes as Iran faces increasing Western pressure over its shipment of drones to arm Russia during its war on Ukraine, as well as for its violent crackdown targeting protesters.

The seizure occurred January 15 in the Gulf of Oman, a body of water that stretches from the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf, through to the Arabian Sea and onto the Indian Ocean. CENTCOM described the interdiction as happening “along routes historically used to traffic weapons unlawfully from Iran to Yemen.”

A United Nations resolution bans arms transfers to Yemen’s Iranian-backed Houthi rebels, who took the country’s capital in late 2014 and have been at war with a Saudi-led coalition backing the country’s government since March 2015.

The French military did not respond to requests for comment about capturing the weapons.

But Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani in an online message said Tehran had not supplied the weapons on the vessel and described the accusations as “politically motivated.”

Iran’s mission to the United Nations Tehran ”adheres to the resolutions adopted by the UN security council related to Yemen.”

Iran has long denied arming the Houthis, though Western nations and UN experts have traced weaponry back to Tehran.

The war in Yemen shows little real sign of settlement and has led to the deaths of more than 150,000 people including over 14,500 civilians.