The Iranian Revolutionary Guards in Yemen

I have no doubt that the Houthi militia is a creation of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and operates under its management, making the strategies of both sides inseparable.

Iran and its supporters deny this connection because they want the group to be perceived as a domestic Yemeni faction fighting within a local conflict. Politically and militarily, the Houthi movement was engineered by the IRGC in the same way as Iraq’s Hezbollah and Lebanon’s Hezbollah — a reality that remains unchanged by its status as a Yemeni front.

Historically, this tribal faction possessed neither a political project nor military capabilities beyond its native Saada governorate. It lacked any experience in running security apparatuses, government facilities or even media outlets.