Iran Denies Directing Houthi Offensive as Yemen's West Coast Falls Under Rebel Control

Iran has pushed back against mounting allegations that its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps played a hands-on role in recent battlefield gains by Yemen's Houthi movement, even as Tehran welcomed those advances as a sign of the group's growing strength.

The denials came after several US media outlets, citing unnamed American officials and soldiers, reported that IRGC advisers had helped plan and coordinate an offensive in western Yemen that tightened Houthi control over the Bab al-Mandeb strait and the strategic port city of Mocha. According to those accounts, Iranian personnel worked alongside front-line Houthi commanders, assisted with communications systems, and provided analysis drawn from satellite intelligence. The reports also claimed that Tehran pledged continued military backing for the group.

While Iranian authorities have not commented on the specific details of those allegations, they have consistently rejected the broader charge that they issue orders to the Houthis. Both Tehran and the Yemeni group have long maintained that the Houthis act independently, even though the two sides' geopolitical objectives frequently overlap. The IRGC, for its part, described the Houthis' recent territorial gains as a "divine triumph" earned after years of persistence and resilience.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian addressed the issue directly this week in an interview with Al Jazeera, dismissing any link between Iran and Houthi military operations. At the same time, he called on Saudi Arabia — which backs Yemen's internationally recognised government — and the Houthis to sit down at the negotiating table to bring the country's long civil war to an end. Pezeshkian went further, offering Iranian assistance in mediating a conflict that has seen Houthi missiles and drones strike Saudi cities over the years.

The Iranian Foreign Ministry also weighed in earlier this month, rejecting US Secretary of State Marco Rubio's characterization of the Houthis as an Iranian proxy. In its response, the ministry drew attention to the severe humanitarian toll of the Saudi-led blockade on Yemen, framing the debate around the suffering of ordinary Yemenis rather than questions of regional patronage.

The timing of the allegations is significant. The Houthis' coastal advances have unfolded in parallel with what US media describe as Iranian efforts to disrupt shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, a campaign aimed at pressuring Washington to lift its naval blockade. The convergence of these two pressure points — the Red Sea approaches and the Gulf — has raised concerns that Iran is coordinating a broader strategy across multiple maritime chokepoints.

In September, the Houthis captured Mocha, Dhubab and Mayyun, also known as Perim Island, consolidating their command over Yemen's entire western coastline in the process. That string of victories effectively severed the internationally recognised government's access to the Red Sea and handed the Houthis control over the Bab al-Mandeb strait, the narrow waterway connecting the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden and one of the world's most critical shipping lanes.

The scale of the Houthis' transformation has been documented before. In September 2024, a confidential United Nations report leaked to US media concluded that the group had evolved "from a localised armed group with limited capabilities to a powerful military organisation," crediting assistance from the IRGC, Lebanon's Hezbollah and specialists from Iraq. The same report alleged that Houthi members were receiving tactical and technical training outside Yemen and traveling on falsified passports to Iran, Lebanon and Iraq.

A separate episode in mid-July illustrated the tensions surrounding Iran's involvement. An Iranian passenger aircraft attempted to break the Saudi-imposed blockade by landing at the Houthi-controlled airport in Sanaa, the Yemeni capital. The plane was diverted after the Saudi-backed Yemeni government bombed the airport shortly before its scheduled arrival. The aircraft ultimately landed in Hodeidah instead. A Houthi official denied government claims that the flight carried IRGC personnel, while Iranian authorities said the plane was transporting a Houthi delegation returning from the funeral of slain Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, along with Yemeni nationals who had received medical treatment in Iran.

The regional stakes have continued to rise. In late September, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan convened military chiefs of staff talks in Riyadh aimed at supporting the kingdom as Houthi attacks on the world's top crude exporter intensify. The Houthis have escalated their strikes on Saudi targets since July, ending a years-long truce, declaring a maritime blockade and seizing Yemen's entire Red Sea coast in an apparent effort to stifle Saudi oil exports.

The Houthis' recent battlefield successes therefore carry implications that extend well beyond Yemen's borders. By controlling both the Bab al-Mandeb strait and the ability to threaten Saudi infrastructure, the group has positioned itself as a pivotal actor in Red Sea security — a development that affects global shipping, energy markets and the balance of power between Iran and its regional rivals. Whether Tehran is directing those actions or merely benefiting from them remains the central question, and it is one that the available evidence, much of it based on anonymous official accounts, has yet to settle definitively.