Yemen Says Iran, Hezbollah Experts Oversee Houthi Operations
Yemen’s interior minister says 21 foreign experts from Iran’s Revolutionary Guard and Hezbollah oversee Houthi military operations across six provinces.
ERBIL (Kurdistan24) - Yemen’s Interior Ministry on Tuesday disclosed new details about the scale and nature of foreign involvement in the Houthis’ military operations. The ministry confirmed the presence of 21 foreign experts from Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps and Lebanon’s Hezbollah, who it says oversee planning, command, and the development of military technology in the country.
In a press statement, Yemeni Interior Minister Ibrahim Haidan said the list includes 14 members of the Revolutionary Guard Corps and seven from Hezbollah, spread across six Yemeni provinces. He emphasized, “This group is not merely a training team, but forms a complete staff body that supervises, in the field, the implementation of Tehran’s agendas.”
According to the statement, the experts’ specialties include operations management, command and control, ballistic missiles, drones, surveillance, communications and electronic warfare, as well as supply and smuggling networks for military formations.
The statement adds that they also coordinate naval operations, select targets among commercial ships, and develop explosive-laden boats. Their work further covers engineering autonomous submarines and training fighters in mine-laying, siege tactics, and urban warfare, it says.
Haidan said the network is run by a senior Revolutionary Guard military commander, who lives in Yemen under diplomatic cover as Iran’s ambassador. In reality, he said, the commander works as general supervisor of operations, strategic adviser, and head of the joint operations room.
The Yemeni government warned that turning Yemen into a testing ground for Iranian weapons is not only a threat to Arab security. It said the move also has negative effects on international shipping and energy supplies in the Red Sea.
In a message to residents of areas under Houthi control, the government said the war into which their sons are being drawn, under the pretext of defending Palestine, is not their war. It described the conflict as one whose agenda and cost belong to Iran.
The Interior Ministry again urged the international community to swiftly designate the Houthis a terrorist organization and dismantle their financing and arming networks. It also called for strict enforcement of UN Security Council Resolutions 2216 and 2624 on banning arms exports.
The statement concluded that Yemeni security agencies are continuing their duties and supporting the armed forces under the Fajr Yemen operation. The operation aims to restore state institutions and Sanaa and to stabilize the situation.