ADEN, Yemen — Stop arming the Houthi militia and withdraw your experts, Yemen’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates told Iran, as it condemned Tehran’s latest statement on Yemen as misleading interference.
The ministry said the Iranian statement gave political and media cover to the Houthis. It accused Tehran of adopting the militia’s narrative, justifying its practices and trying to escape responsibility for prolonging the war and deepening Yemen’s humanitarian tragedy.
Yemeni agencies, the ministry said, have found that Iranian interference has moved beyond financing, arming and training. It now involves direct participation in planning and managing operations, paired with diplomatic cover in international forums.
That combination, the ministry said, shows the true nature of Iran’s role in undermining the Yemeni state and threatening the security of the region and its waterways.
21 Foreign Experts Cited
The figure comes from the Interior Ministry. In an announcement recalled by the foreign ministry, it put the number of foreign experts working with the Houthis at 21 — 14 of them from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and seven from Hezbollah.
Their work covers command and control and the management of operations, the ministry said. It also covers ballistic missiles, drones and electronic warfare, the smuggling of military components, and the coordination of maritime operations, including choosing commercial vessels to target.
Together, the ministry said, they form a fully fledged general staff. Their role goes beyond training to supervising, planning and directing operations, and Yemenis pay for it with their lives, their security and their livelihoods, it added. Virginia Times has not independently verified the presence or roles of the experts described in the statement.
“Respect for Yemen’s sovereignty begins with halting the arming of the militias, withdrawing the experts, and ceasing interference in Yemen’s national decision-making.”
The ministry also rejected what it called Iran’s exploitation of the victims of the Souq Al-Hadarah crime in Al-Wazi’iyah district of Taiz governorate. Tehran was using their blood, it said, to promote accusations that contradict what Yemeni authorities have announced, including their call for independent investigations into Houthi violations of human rights and international law.
Attacks at Home and at Sea
By arming the Houthis and supplying experts, Tehran enables the militia’s attacks inside Yemen, the ministry said. It listed abductions, killings and the terrorizing of civilians, the shelling of cities and civilian facilities, and the besieging and starving of the population.
The ministry also pointed to repeated attacks on Saudi territory, on commercial shipping and on navigation in the Red Sea and the Bab al-Mandab Strait.
It described the interference as part of a long-running Iranian pattern of financing armed groups that challenge national governments’ sole authority over force and over decisions of war and peace.
The statement also pointed to the U.N. arms embargo on the Houthis. Imposed under Resolution 2216 and later expanded under Resolution 2624 to cover the group as an entity, it reaches weapons and equipment, technical help, training and military financing.
A Call to End Interference
What serves Iran, the ministry argued, is respecting other states’ sovereignty. It urged Tehran to build good-neighbourly ties on shared interests and non-interference, and to give up its policy of arming affiliated groups.
The money would be better spent at home, the ministry said. Iran’s resources should go to improving Iranians’ livelihoods — development, services and jobs — not to arms and smuggling networks, it said.
Over 12 years of war, the ministry said, Iran has offered Yemenis nothing but missiles, suicide drones, explosive-laden boats and experts of destruction. Saudi Arabia, by contrast, has provided relief, humanitarian and development assistance, along with help for Yemeni expatriates whose work and remittances keep millions alive, it said.
The ministry closed by saying Tehran’s professed concern for Yemeni lives requires, first of all, that it stop using the very tools that prolong their suffering and deepen the destruction.
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