Press conference exposes Iran’s relationship with Houthis

Hassan El-Haddad

In an admission of links to armed militias in the region, Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh, commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Aerospace Force, appeared in a press conference with the flags of Iran, the IRGC and various transnational groups they support, including Lebanon’s Hezbollah, Yemen’s Ansar Allah (the Houthis), Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Units, Palestinian Hamas, the Afghan Fatemiyoun and the Pakistani Zainabiyoun.

The relationship between Iran and the Houthi militias in Yemen has emerged early in the war between the Houthis and the Yemeni legitimate government. The military relationship between Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps and the Houthis is old, but it has remained invisible.

However, this relationship was exposed in 2013 when the Revolutionary Guard Corps intensified the smuggling of arms and experts to the Houthi militias.

When the Houthi militias took control of Sanaa, they laid siege to the headquarters of the Yemeni National Security Service, which was detaining a number of Iranian Revolutionary Guard experts.

The Houthi militias released three Iranians who were detained by the Yemeni National Security Service.

In 2017, Reuters revealed that Iran had boosted its role in Yemen more arms supplies and other forms of support to the Houthis. Tehran has applied the same strategy with its ally in Lebanon, Hezbollah.