Iran has provided Yemen’s Houthi rebels with intelligence and tactical guidance to help them target Saudi Arabia and forces allied with Riyadh, according to a report by The Wall Street Journal, raising concerns about Tehran’s growing role in the conflict and the threat to regional security.
Iranian assistance has extended beyond weapons supplies to intelligence-sharing and operational support, according to WSJ report. The allegations point to closer coordination between Tehran and the Houthis as the group intensifies its military campaign against Saudi Arabia.
The Houthis emerged in northern Yemen during the 1990s as a movement rooted in the Zaydi branch of Shia Islam and began fighting the Yemeni government in 2004. Iran’s support expanded as Yemen’s political crisis deepened following the 2011 Arab Spring and the Houthis strengthened their position against the government.
The support the Houthis received from Iran and other Axis actors “undeniably paved the way for the rapid-fire gains they’ve made over the past few months,” Adam Baron, a Yemen expert and fellow at the Washington-based policy institute New America, told the WSJ. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and Lebanon’s Hezbollah have helped the Houthis acquire technical expertise in missile systems and weapons production, according to experts cited by Reuters. Andreas Krieg, a senior security studies lecturer at King’s College London, said, “Tehran has not simply supplied the Houthis with weapons. “Iran has a major interest in the Houthis’ success,” Citrinowicz said, adding that the attacks harm Saudi Arabia and push up oil prices. He described the relationship as one based on “strategic cooperation” rather than a conventional client-patron arrangement.
It has helped create an indigenous military-industrial learning process that becomes progressively harder to dismantle, even if direct Iranian supply routes are disrupted.