The president of Yemen has sent a message to his Iranian counterpart calling on him to stop sending arms to Yemen and quit supporting the southern separatist movement.

An official in the office of President Abed Rabbu Mansour Hadi said Thursday that the message to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad went through diplomatic channels earlier this week.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief the media.

Yemen's Defense Ministry said Wednesday that Yemeni authorities last month seized a ship carrying a wide variety of Iranian-made weapons.

Yemen recently has witnessed several cases of illegal arms shipments through its porous shores and also is home to an active branch of al-Qaida, which staged several failed or foiled attacks on U.S. territory.