Yemenupdated 55m ago3 min read
Yemen Interior Minister Ibrahim Haidan Accuses Iran And Hezbollah Of Running Houthi Operations
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Yemen's interior ministry says 21 foreign experts (14 IRGC, 7 Hezbollah) run Houthi operations. Experts oversee planning, missiles, UAVs, and maritime attacks in Houthi-controlled areas.
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Accusations of foreign experts
Yemeni Interior Minister Ibrahim Haidan accused Iran and the Lebanese Hezbollah of running part of the military operations of the Houthi group (Ansar Allah) through 21 military experts who operate in the group’s areas of control. Haidan said the experts include 14 members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps and 7 from the Lebanese Hezbollah, and he described their tasks as including planning operations, developing ballistic missiles and unmanned aircraft, and targeting ships in the Red Sea. Haidan warned that these activities threaten regional security, the lives of sailors, and freedom of navigation in the Red Sea and the Bab al-Mandab Strait, urging the international community to designate the Houthis as a “terrorist organization” and to implement the weapon embargo specified in United Nations Security Council Resolutions 2216 and 2624.
He also said the experts are led by Abdul-Ridha Shahla’i, who is said to supervise and execute the military operations of the Houthis, alongside Ali Muhammad Ramadhai and Ali Hussein Najati, with Maysam Fawad Mortaza attributed to Hezbollah. Hezbollah rejected the claims, with its Media Relations Office saying the accusations were “completely baseless” and had “no factual foundation.”
Hezbollah denies, Yemen presses
Hezbollah said it had “no factual foundation” for claims that Hezbollah personnel were helping Ansarullah develop its weapons capabilities and military training, and it insisted that “Yemeni people don’t need support or intervention from anyone.” Yemeni Interior Minister Ibrahim Haidan, in the Yemeni Ministry of Interior’s data, said the experts are distributed across sites including Sanaa, Hudaydah, Saada, Hajja, Amran, and the Khawkhah region. Haidan described the experts’ work as including managing operations rooms and command and control, operating surveillance and communications systems and electronic warfare, and securing supply networks and smuggling military components.
Rashad al-Alimi, head of the Yemeni Presidential Leadership Council, warned during a meeting with Clemens Hafts that Iranian networks involved in managing the war threaten international navigation, and he urged the European Union to designate the Houthis as a terrorist organization. Al-Alimi argued that the level of Iranian involvement goes beyond financing and arming to “direct participation in managing the war,” and he warned that continued transfer of expertise, weapons, and technologies to the Houthis would raise the cost of containment and prolong Yemen’s suffering.
Calls for designation and embargo
The Yemeni Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned the continued overt military interventions of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps and the Lebanese Hizballah in Yemen’s internal affairs, and it said the Interior Ministry’s disclosure of 21 foreign experts reveals the scale and danger of this interference. The Yemeni Foreign Ministry said the illegal foreign military presence violates the Republic of Yemen’s sovereignty and principles of international law, and it affirmed Iran’s regime’s responsibility for managing the interference through elements of the IRGC and Hizballah. The ministry warned that the dangers of this interference extend beyond Yemen’s borders to pose a direct threat to regional and international security, freedom of navigation, and global trade in the southern Red Sea and the Bab el-Mandeb Strait.
The Yemeni Interior Ministry also said the list “is led by a military officer from the IRGC who appears on camera as a ‘state ambassador’ claiming to respect international law,” and it added that “the list does not represent a training mission, but a complete staff.” The Yemeni government framed the stakes as international action, urging the international community, led by the Security Council, to condemn these interventions and implement the arms embargo mandated by United Nations Security Council Resolutions 2216 and 2624.