New allegations that Iran has backed Yemen’s Houthis have surfaced in media reports and official comments, shedding light on what has been a largely opaque relationship. Media outlets reported that Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) helped the Houthis as they seized large areas of western Yemen and launched their most powerful and sophisticated attacks yet on Saudi Arabia, which backs the internationally recognised Yemeni government.
The reported support includes training, intelligence, tactical guidance and help in targeting for drone and missile strikes. If the claims hold, they would further strain relations between Iran and Saudi Arabia. The kingdom has been hit by dozens of Houthi drones and missiles in recent weeks, including an attack on King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh that killed 13 people. Saudi energy facilities and oil tankers have also been targeted.
Reports link Revolutionary Guard to Houthi offensive
According to the reports, Iranian backing contributed to a September offensive by the Houthis, a group also known as Ansar Allah, meaning Supporters of God. Those battles gave the Houthis control of Yemen’s Red Sea coastline and the strategically important Bab al-Mandeb strait.
The Wall Street Journal, as cited in the coverage, reported that Iranian Mahan Air flights carried IRGC paramilitary officers, drone parts, missile guidance systems and impact detonators to the Houthis. IRGC officers were also reportedly on the front lines directing Houthi attacks.
The spokesperson for the Saudi-led coalition supporting Yemen’s government, Major-General Turki al-Maliki, confirmed that an external state was behind the Houthis’ evolving arsenal but did not name it. He said the group, which has fought the government since 2014, had acquired advanced technology with regional help. He added that this support made the Houthis the first non-state armed group to deploy ballistic missiles, offensive and suicide drones, and explosive-laden high-speed boats, although other Iranian allies, including Hezbollah and Iran-linked militias, also possess such weapons.
The Houthis have stressed their independence from Iran, even though the two groups share an ideology and have been accused of working closely on military matters. Analysts who spoke to the outlet agreed that the regional assistance points towards the IRGC, while Iran and the Houthis denied this.
Analysts weigh smuggling routes and Iran’s strategy
Analysts pointed to several indicators. One was the bombing of Sanaa International Airport in July, just before an Iranian plane carrying a Houthi delegation from Tehran was due to land. The Yemeni government, which said its forces carried out the strike, accused the Iranian aircraft of violating Yemeni airspace.
Ibrahim Jalal, a Yemen-focused analyst, said recent reports confirmed what experts had long known: Revolutionary Guard and Hezbollah specialists were involved in planning operations against the Yemeni government and neighbouring countries, including Saudi Arabia. He cited the killing of Hassan Irloo, described as the Revolutionary Guard envoy to the Houthis, in Yemen after the 2021 military campaign on Marib, as well as Mahan flights that he said carried more experts ahead of the Houthis’ escalation in July.
Ali al-Dahab, a military and strategic security analyst, said the advanced weaponry indicated an Iranian role in recent operations. He argued that the weapons were moving by small submarines, particularly precision technology for missiles and unmanned aircraft, and that this was not the only route. He said authorities had intercepted smuggled shipments along the coast before the Houthis took control of the area.
Al-Dahab noted that smugglers have traditionally used dhows, wooden sailboats, to evade naval patrols, while the use of submarines is a newer method. He said Iran appeared to view the Houthis as a key centre of military influence south of the Red Sea. He also warned that substate groups in the region could unite under Iranian leadership if a broader confrontation broke out in the Gulf of Aden and the strait, a scenario he said would threaten shipping and Western navies. Bab al-Mandeb, he noted, is a narrow waterway linking the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea.
Saudi-Iran détente faces renewed strain over Yemen
Saudi Arabia and Iran had appeared to end years of hostility, including the suspension of diplomatic relations, through a China-brokered agreement signed in Beijing in 2023. Hesham Alghannam, a Riyadh-based fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said he doubted Saudi Arabia ever saw the deal as full reconciliation, viewing it instead as a way to lower tensions. Differences have continued on issues including Yemen, which lies on Saudi Arabia’s southern border.
Alghannam said the situation had changed because the disagreement had become public. “It’s keeping two files apart, and it works until someone says it out loud. That’s what’s changed,” he said. He also argued that the central question was whether anything Tehran agreed to would reach the groups controlling the weapons.
Looking back at 2014, Alghannam recalled that the Houthis had been offered seats in government, special status for Saada and a share of executive authority in return for handing heavy weapons to the state. Instead, the Houthis seized the capital, Sanaa, in September 2014, forcing the government to flee south. Former President Ali Abdullah Saleh was later killed.
Saudi Arabia’s military intervention in Yemen began in March 2015, leading to another direct conflict with the Houthis. Despite substantial Saudi support for the internationally recognised government, it failed to retake Sanaa, a result that exposed divisions within the anti-Houthi coalition, including tensions between the government and southern separatists. Alghannam said the lesson was that announcing goals too early can bind a government to them long before it can deliver.
Hassan Ahmadian, an assistant professor of political science at the University of Tehran, told the outlet that Iran tends to help partners build their own technology rather than keep them dependent. He contrasted this with the United States, which he said often sells weapons to partners without providing the core technology. He said Iran’s approach extends to Yemen and other regions, and that enabling allies to produce weapons served Iran’s strategic interests. He also said the Houthis were motivated by a desire to break the Saudi siege on areas they control, a claim he framed as a just cause.
