On Dec. 14, Nikki Haley, the US ambassador to the United Nations, gave a speech from a US military base in Washington standing in front of what she claimed was an Iranian missile delivered to Houthi rebels in Yemen. Haley claimed that the delivery of such weapons violated a 2015 United Nations Security Council resolution, vowing stronger action against Tehran. While most experts were skeptical of Haley’s claims, Iran was dismissive and answered back about US actions in Yemen.

Ali Akbar Velayati, foreign policy adviser to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, joked at a Dec. 17 press conference, “I don’t know if this lady who is America’s representative at the UN is an international specialist or missile specialist.” He continued, “She showed something and said the Iranians had done it. This is just a claim and it shows that this individual does not have the minimum scientific information.”

Velayati added, “Like President Trump, they make baseless and ridiculous comments. The Islamic Republic under no conditions has given missiles to Yemen.”

Brig. Gen. Ramazan Sharif, spokesman for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, said Dec. 17, “It’s been three years that Saudi Arabia has been dropping bombs on the people of Yemen and all the weapons are coming from the US and Europe. But the US representative shows one pipe and says it has the fingerprints of the Iranians on it while everyone knows that Yemen has considerable missile equipment from the Soviet Union and North Korea and has been known for its missiles in the region.”