Chief of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces Major General Mohammad Hossein Bagheri admitted on Tuesday that the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) offer support to the Houthi militias in Yemen.
“We offer our advisory and intellectual support to Yemen’s national army,” Bagheri told Phoenix Chinese channel during his last visit to Beijing.
However, Bagheri failed to mention what kind of intellectual and advisory help his Guards were offering to Houthi rebels.
In the past years, Iran had used the term “advisory” to describe the Quds Force, an IRGC unit directed to carry out unconventional warfare and intelligence activities.
He said the Guards gave support to Iraq and Syria upon the request of their governments, and offered advisory and armed assistance to them, without specifying what capacities those weapons had.
At the same time, Bagheri denied his country had sent missiles and arms to the Houthis, saying “Yemen has been besieged completely for years, so how is it possible to send large missiles to Yemen?”
The General reiterated that Iran would stand by the Yemeni people until victory.
This is not the first time that an Iranian official admits IRGC’s support to the Houthis.
In 2017, former IRGC head Major General Ali Jafari said Iran was assisting the militias at the advisory and spiritual level.
Also, last May, IRGC deputy commander Admiral Ali Fadavi said that Iran helps the Houthis as much as it can but not as much as it would like to, due to the “blockade of Yemen.”
He said that if Iran could go to Yemen as it went to Syria, the situation there would not be as it is now.
