‘Every shot fired’: Are Yemen’s Houthis a proxy force for Iran?

Tehran, Iran – The United States has continued its attacks on Yemen, injuring people and causing extensive damage.

After he ordered a bombing campaign against the Houthis – which has so far killed at least 53 people since Saturday – President Donald Trump said he would hold Iran responsible for any attacks by the group against shipping in the Red Sea.

Iran and Yemen’s Houthi movement have long been allies, part of a regional “axis of resistance” against Israel and the United States.

However, the extent of the relationship is often disputed. Some see the Houthis as an Iranian proxy, while others view the Houthis as a group friendly to Iran, but independent.

On Friday, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said that his country has no need for proxies and that the Houthis act in their own interests.

According to his public comments, US President Donald Trump falls in the first camp.

Washington will view “every shot” fired by the Houthis as a shot fired by Iran that could bring about “dire consequences”, he said.

Do Iran and the Houthis operate hand in hand? Or is it more nuanced than that? Let’s take a closer look:

Who are the Houthis?

Officially known as Ansar Allah (supporters of God), the Houthis are a political and military movement that emerged in the 1990s but rose to international prominence in 2014 when they took control of the Yemeni capital, Sanaa.

After months of fighting with the Yemeni government and other forces, a military coalition led by Saudi Arabia with support from the US and the United Arab Emirates, among others, intervened militarily against the Houthis.

But the group is still in control of Sanaa and, if anything, has grown stronger over the past decade.

Since the beginning of Israel’s war on Gaza, the Houthis have been attacking Israel-linked ships heading through the Red Sea, and launching direct missile and drone attacks on Israel to pressure it to end its war on the besieged enclave.

What military support does Iran give the Houthis?

Tehran has publicly backed the Yemeni armed group for years but denies directly providing it with advanced weaponry that has been used in combat in the past few years.

The Houthis say they manufacture weapons domestically, and point out that – as the de facto state in Sanaa and Yemen’s heavily populated northwest – they have taken over weapons stockpiles left behind by the government when it fled south.

The group has tried to diversify its arms manufacturing industry, making more weapons domestically while still partly relying on imported parts.

Israel said the Houthi projectile that crashed in its territory in July 2024, killing one person and injuring several others, was an Iranian-design suicide drone.

Houthi authorities said they planned and executed the strike themselves, and Iran was not in the loop.

A United Nations panel of experts also said last year that the Houthis received training from Iran and the Lebanese group Hezbollah and that the Houthis do “not have the capacity to develop and produce, without foreign support, complex weapons systems”.

Western countries, however, maintain that Iran has transferred weapons and technologies for ballistic missiles, antiship cruise missiles, and a variety of drones. They also claim that Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has trained Houthi soldiers and advises them militarily.

The US has alleged the Houthis have also tried to buy weapons and parts through companies in China while working to get antiship cruise missiles from Russia amid the fallout of Moscow’s war in Ukraine.

How close are Iran and the Houthis diplomatically?

Iranian diplomats frequently host Houthi officials, and Iranian state media hails the group as an important member of the Tehran-led axis of resistance.

The two sides were in constant contact during Yemen’s civil war, with Iran condemning coalition attacks on Yemen amid what was described as the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

The Houthis increased their attacks on the coalition in the aftermath of the 2020 US assassination of Qassem Soleimani, Iran’s top general and a main architect of the axis.

How similar is the ideology of Iran and the Houthis?

The Houthis have been known to adopt similar geopolitical rhetoric to Iran, support the principles of the Islamic Revolution in Iran, and the Iranian political system has greatly influenced them.

However, the Houthis differ from the Iranian establishment in many ways.

The Houthis largely follow the Zaidi school of Shia Islam, which has similarities to but differs from, the Twelver Shia Islam practised in Iran.

The Zaidi tradition has been in Yemen for more than 1,000 years – and the Houthis see themselves as part of that legacy, and having grown organically as a local movement, rather than a foreign project.

The group has also set out independent political and military objectives, such as gaining control over a unified Yemen and fighting foreign intervention, especially by the US and Israel.

The Houthis have demonstrated a willingness to attack Saudi Arabia and the UAE based on Yemeni grievances, particularly those involving air strikes and blockades that devastated the local population.

At times, they have ignored Iranian advice, including when they unilaterally declared a ceasefire and held talks with Saudi Arabia in 2019 when Tehran was believed to be in favour of military resistance.

What happens now?

Washington has signalled it intends to bomb Yemen in the coming weeks, or even months.

The dozens of air strikes across the country to date have killed children and women, along with Houthi fighters.

The attacks came after the Houthis threatened to resume their strikes – that had halted after the January 19 ceasefire in Gaza – in opposition to Israel’s blocking of all humanitarian aid from entering the enclave.

After Israel killed at least 436 Palestinians in Gaza on Tuesday and continued brutal air strikes, Houthi leader Abdel-Malik al-Houthi promised in a televised speech to take military escalation to the highest level.

The Houthis have claimed five rounds of missile and drone attacks against US aircraft carrier the Harry S Truman and its supporting warships.

They announced that they launched a missile towards Israel’s Ben Gurion International Airport. The Israeli military said the missile was intercepted.

For its part, Iran has warned that all-out regional war could break out if it is attacked.

Iran’s mission to the UN also wrote a letter this week to the Security Council to condemn “reckless and provocative” statements by Trump.

Hardliners in Tehran have increasingly signalled they will push to build a nuclear bomb if the existence of the Iranian establishment is threatened.