New allegations about Iranian support for Yemen’s Houthis have emerged in media reports and official comments, highlighting the opaque nature of the alliance. Media outlets have reported that Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) aided the Houthis as they seized swaths of western Yemen and launched their most potent and sophisticated attacks yet on Saudi Arabia, which supports the internationally recognised Yemeni government fighting the Houthis. Iranian support for the Houthis reported by the media includes training, intelligence, tactical guidance and help in targeting for drone and missile attacks.
If true, this will undoubtedly escalate tensions between Iran and Saudi Arabia, given that the kingdom has been targeted by dozens of Houthi drones and missiles in recent weeks, including an attack on King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh that killed 13 people. Saudi energy facilities and oil tankers have also been targeted by the group. Iranian backing, according to the reports, contributed to a September offensive by the Houthis, an armed group also known as Ansar Allah (Arabic for Supporters of God).
Those battles saw the Houthis win control of Yemen’s Red Sea coastline and the strategically important Bab al-Mandeb strait. The Wall Street Journal reported that Iranian Mahan Air flights ferried IRGC paramilitary officers, drone parts, missile guidance systems and impact detonators to the Houthis in Yemen. IRGC officers were also reportedly on the front lines directing Houthi attacks.
The spokesperson for the Saudi-led coalition supporting Yemen’s government, Major-General Turki al-Maliki, confirmed the presence of an external state actor behind the Houthis’ evolving arsenal but did not mention the state in question. Al-Maliki noted that the Houthis, who have been at war with the government since 2014, have acquired advanced technologies with regional assistance. This support has made the Houthis the first nonstate armed group to deploy ballistic missiles, offensive and suicide drones, and explosive-laden, high-speed boats, he said, although other Iranian allies, such as Hezbollah and Iranian militias, also possess such weaponry.
While the Houthis have stressed their independence from Iran, the two groups are ideologically aligned. They have also been accused of collaborating closely on military matters, evident in the Houthis’ missile arsenal. Analysts who spoke to Al Jazeera all agreed that the “regional assistance” the Houthis are receiving points towards the IRGC although Iran and the Houthis denied this.
One indication of this is the bombing of Sanaa International Airport in July before an Iranian plane carrying a Houthi delegation travelling from Tehran was due to land. The Yemeni government, which said its forces carried out the attack, accused “the Iranian aircraft” of violating Yemeni airspace. Saudi Arabia and Iran had appeared to have patched up years of hostilities, including the suspension of diplomatic relations, with a China-brokered reconciliation agreement signed in Beijing in 2023.
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