Iran steps up support for Yemen Houthis
YEMEN: Iran is sending advanced weapons and military advisers to Yemen’s rebel Houthi movement, stepping up support for its Shi’ite ally in a civil war whose outcome could sway the balance of power in the Middle East, regional and Western sources say.
Iran’s enemy Saudi Arabia is leading a Sunni Arab coalition fighting the Houthis in the impoverished state on the tip of the Arabian peninsula – part of the same regional power struggle that is fuelling the war in Syria.
Sources with knowledge of the military movements say that Iran has taken a greater role in the 2-year-old conflict by stepping up arms supplies and other support. This mirrors the strategy it has used to support its Lebanese ally Hezbollah in Syria.
A senior Iranian official said Major General Qassem Soleimani, commander of the Qods Force – the external arm of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps – met top IRGC officials in Tehran last month to look at ways to ‘‘empower’’ the Houthis.
‘‘At this meeting, they agreed to increase the amount of help, through training, arms and financial support,’’ the official said.
‘‘Yemen is where the real proxy war is going on and winning the battle in Yemen will help define the balance of power in the Middle East.’’
Iran rejects accusations from Saudi Arabia that it is giving financial and military support to the Houthis in the struggle for Yemen, blaming the deepening crisis on Riyadh.
But Iran’s actions in Yemen seem to reflect the growing influence of hardliners in Tehran, keen to pre-empt a tougher policy towards Iran signalled by United States President Donald Trump.
Brigadier General Ahmed Asseri, spokesman for the Arab coalition fighting the Houthis, said: ‘‘We don’t lack information or evidence that the Iranians, by various means, are smuggling weapons into the area.
‘‘We observe that the Kornet anti-tank weapon is on the ground, whereas before it wasn’t in the arsenal of the Yemeni army or of the Houthis. It came later.’’
A Houthi leader said coalition accusations that Iran was smuggling weapons into Yemen were an attempt to cover up Saudi Arabia’s failure to prevail in an intractable war in which at least 10,000 people have been killed.
‘‘The Saudis don’t want to admit their failings so they are searching for false justifications . . . after two years of the aggression that the United States and Britain are involved in,’’ the Houthi leader, who declined to be named, said.
Iran’s activities have alarmed Sunni Muslim countries in the Middle East, with one senior official from a neighbouring country saying: ‘‘We want Iran to stop exporting Shi’ism in the region, whether in Yemen or elsewhere.’’
Saudi Arabia intervened in Yemen’s civil war in 2015 to back President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi after he was ousted from the capital Sanaa by the Houthis. Government forces in the south and east hold most of Yemen’s territory, while the Houthis control most population centres in the northwest, including Sanaa.
A former senior Iranian security official said Iran’s hardline rulers planned to empower Houthi militia in Yemen to ‘‘strengthen their hand in the region’’.
‘‘They are planning to create a Hezbollah-like militia in Yemen. To confront Riyadh’s hostile policies . . . Iran needs to use all its cards,’’ the former official said.
– Reuters