Yemeni Army Spokesman to Asharq Al-Awsat: Iranians Continue Smuggling Arms to Support Houthis

 The Iran-backed Houthis committed 389 violations that led to the death of 70 civilians across Yemen last month. (Reuters/File photo)
The Iran-backed Houthis committed 389 violations that led to the death of 70 civilians across Yemen last month. (Reuters/File photo)
TT

Yemeni Army Spokesman to Asharq Al-Awsat: Iranians Continue Smuggling Arms to Support Houthis

 The Iran-backed Houthis committed 389 violations that led to the death of 70 civilians across Yemen last month. (Reuters/File photo)
The Iran-backed Houthis committed 389 violations that led to the death of 70 civilians across Yemen last month. (Reuters/File photo)

Yemeni Army spokesman Brigadier General Abdo Majli told Asharq Al-Awsat on Monday that the Iranian regime is still involved in the smuggling of arms and missiles to the Houthi militias in Yemen. He said the smuggling operation happens through the Hodeidah, Salif and Ras Issa ports, on the Red Sea coasts.

“We are talking about an open area. The arms are smuggled in boats crossing the international waters to the Houthi-controlled areas in Yemen,” Majli said.

The General explained that weapons are sometimes transformed in spare parts, which are then gathered by Iranian experts in Sanaa or in Saadah.

At the battlefield, Majli called on the International Committee of the Red Cross to remove the bodies of hundreds of Houthi militias laid at the Nahm and Jawf fronts, after being left by the group when the National Army confronted their infiltration attempts in the area few weeks ago.

“The victories of the National Army continue in the Jawf governorate, where we control large territories,” he said.

Yemeni army commanders said Houthis suffered heavy losses over the last couple of weeks during fighting in Yemen’s main battlefields of Sanaa, Marib, Jawf and Taiz as government forces announced the death and injury of hundreds of Houthis since early last month. 

“More than 80 percent of the Jawf governorate is now captured by the legitimacy,” Majli said, adding that the army controls several highlands, particularly the Black Mountains.

In a related development, the National Army, backed by Coalition helicopters and tanks, launched a wide attack on Houthi militia positions in Maran, in the governorate of Saada.

“The attack left several Houthi deaths and injuries at the frontiers of the Akim mountain, which overlooks the Mastaba and Marawi mountains,” Mohammed bin Abdullah al-Ajabi, commander of the 3rd Commando Brigade told the Saba news agency on Monday.



Iran’s Supreme Leader Says Syrian Youth Will Resist Incoming Government

A defaced portrait of ousted Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is seen in Damascus, Syria, 18 December 2024 (issued 22 December 2024). (EPA)
A defaced portrait of ousted Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is seen in Damascus, Syria, 18 December 2024 (issued 22 December 2024). (EPA)
TT

Iran’s Supreme Leader Says Syrian Youth Will Resist Incoming Government

A defaced portrait of ousted Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is seen in Damascus, Syria, 18 December 2024 (issued 22 December 2024). (EPA)
A defaced portrait of ousted Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is seen in Damascus, Syria, 18 December 2024 (issued 22 December 2024). (EPA)

Iran's supreme leader on Sunday said that young Syrians will resist the new government emerging after the overthrow of President Bashar sl-Assad as he again accused the United States and Israel of sowing chaos in the country.

Iran had provided crucial support to Assad throughout Syria's nearly 14-year civil war, which erupted after he launched a violent crackdown on a popular uprising against his family's decades-long rule. Syria had long served as a key conduit for Iranian aid to Lebanon's armed group Hezbollah.

Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said in an address on Sunday that the “young Syrian has nothing to lose" and suffers from insecurity following Assad's fall.

“What can he do? He should stand with strong will against those who designed and those who implemented the insecurity," Khamenei said. “God willing, he will overcome them.”

He accused the United States and Israel of plotting against Assad's government in order to seize resources, saying: “Now they feel victory, the Americans, the Zionist regime and those who accompanied them.”

Iran and its armed proxies in the region have suffered a series of major setbacks over the past year, with Israel battering Hamas in Gaza and landing heavy blows on Hezbollah before they agreed to a ceasefire in Lebanon last month.

Khamenei denied that such groups were proxies of Iran, saying they fought because of their own beliefs and that Tehran did not depend on them. “If one day we plan to take action, we do not need proxy force,” he said.