With the demise of Hamas and Hezbollah, Yemen's Houthis now represent Tehran’s last effective weapon against the U.S President Donald Trump’s “maximum pressure “ policy, according to an analysis published be The Express news website.
Marco Giannangeli, Defence and Diplomatic Editor of The Express added “It is the new frontline of a bitter proxy war between the US and Iran, and is already holding one the world’s most important shipping routes to ransom”.
Giannangeli wrote:
Iran's supreme leader Ali Khamenei defiantly denied that the Houthis were a proxy following last weekend's US air strikes. But intelligence from opposition group PMOI-MEK/NCRI inside Iran shows this is far from true.
Considered a motley militia until Yemen's 2014 Civil War, Houthis now command a sophisticated arsenal of hypersonic anti-ship ballistic and cruise missiles, aerial and martime Kamikaze drones and guidance systems.
Those missiles are made by Iran's Aerospace Industries Organisation - owned by the notorious Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) which also offers training.
Weapons are delivered to Persian Gulf countries by sea to be transported overland to Yemen.
One method is to hide them in giant GPS-transmitting ship fenders which are cast adrift on the high seas, intercepted by other vessels and taken to their destination.
This comprehensive programme of technical and military assistance is coordinated by IRGC Brigadier General Abdolreza Shahlai.
A protege of Iran’s architect of regional malfeasance Qassem Soleimani, who was killed by Trump in 2020, 65-year-old Gen Shahlai was responsible for terror attacks against US forces in Iraq, coordinated a thwarted plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador in Washington Adel Al-Jubeir and currently has a £12m bounty on his head. Having narrowly missed being killed by Trump in 2020, his war is personal.
Based at Quds Force headquarters in Tehran, Gen Shahlai is supported by a band of bandit brigadiers including Brigadier General Ismail Qaani, commander-in-chief of the IRGC Quds force, and his deputy, Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Fallahzadeh, who formerly commanded IRGC forces in Syria. A more junior IRGC officer, Abu Fatemeh, is in charge of coordinating logistics.
General policy in Yemen is set by Iran's Supreme National Security Council, but every decision requires authorization by Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei.
Unlike President Joe Biden, who limited US airstrikes to military installations, Trump has vowed to "completely annihilate" the terror group.