Iran Guards Warn Saudi Arabia Cannot Contain Houthi Attacks
Revolutionary Guards say Riyadh will remain vulnerable as Houthis intensify attacks and reportedly plan to advance toward Bab al-Mandab Strait
ERBIL (Kurdistan24) — Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) warned Saudi Arabia on Thursday that it will be unable to contain the Tehran-backed Houthis in Yemen or shield itself from further attacks as the Iran-Israel conflict continues to expand across the region.
“Saudi Arabia will certainly be unable to contain Yemen and Ansarullah or remain safe from their attacks,” IRGC spokesman Hossein Mohebi told Defa Press, referring to the Houthis by their alternative name.
“As we have seen in recent days, the more Saudi Arabia attacks, the more it is hit in return,” Mohebi said.
Yemen became the latest front in the Middle East war last month, after the conflict that began on February 28 with US-Israeli strikes against Iran spread to other parts of the region.
The Houthis subsequently intensified attacks on Saudi Arabia and attempted to blockade the kingdom’s Red Sea ports. The escalation followed a series of tit-for-tat strikes in early July after an Iranian aircraft arrived in Yemen’s capital, Sanaa.
The renewed fighting has further destabilized Yemen, which has been engulfed in more than a decade of conflict. It has also effectively upended a fragile truce reached in 2022 between the Houthis and Saudi-backed forces supporting Yemen’s internationally recognized government.
Houthi Forces Eye Bab al-Mandab
Concerns are also mounting over the strategic Bab al-Mandab Strait, a critical maritime chokepoint linking the Red Sea with the Gulf of Aden.
A Yemeni minister told AFP this week that the Houthis were planning to seize territory along the strait, a move that could enable the group to further threaten one of the world’s most important shipping routes.
Three Houthi military sources and a spokesman for Yemeni government forces fighting the group near the waterway separately told AFP that the Houthis were preparing to advance southward from their current positions.
Any Houthi move toward Bab al-Mandab could further raise security concerns for commercial shipping and deepen the regional repercussions of the expanding conflict.
The developments come as Saudi Arabia faces increasing pressure from Houthi attacks while Tehran continues to publicly support the group and portray its campaign as part of the wider regional confrontation.