The main task of the Iranian
embassy in Sana’a is to provide financial, intelligence and military support
for Houthi rebels and forces loyal to Ali Abdulla Saleh against the legal
Yemeni government. The Iranian embassy in Sana’a has turned from a diplomatic
center into an operations command center. Prior to the war that began in March
of this year, Iran was supporting the Houthis by sending them weapons through
air and land. Every week, 14 planes flew from Tehran to Sana’a.
Dr. Riyadh Yassin Abdullah,
Yemen’s Foreign Minister, explained to the Al-Sharq al-Awsat daily that the
Iranian embassy in Sana’a is the Houthis’ operations center. Within the Iranian
embassy in Sana’a there is a central operation, control and intelligence
command and it is also the center for money distribution to the Houthis.
Dr. Yassin said: “despite an air
and land blockade, the Iranian embassy is giving away a lot of facilities to
the Houthis, which is a lot more than Yemen’s legal government.” He was surprised
that despite all foreign embassies moving to Eden, the Iranian embassy is still
in Sana’a. The Yemeni FM stressed that Iran’s role in the Coup against the
legal government in Yemen is obvious and a number of Iranian IRGC forces were
arrested in Yemen and the legal Yemeni government has obtained a large amount
of Iranian documents that reveal Iran’s role in supporting the Houthi militias
and Ali Abdullah Saleh’s forces.
In the beginning of September
2015, after Iran’s defeats in Yemen and Iraq, an urgent session of the Supreme
National Security Council was held with the presence of the Yemeni Ansarollah,
Quds Force representative, Quds Force representative to Iraq and the Iranian
ambassador to Iraq. The Ansarollah representative took part in the first half
hour of the meeting and gave a report on the latest situation in Yemen and the
advancement of Yemeni forces; their measures and the conditions of ammunitions
and supplies of the Ansarollah. The Yemeni representative in this session
explained about the poor conditions of their weaponry and said that their
weapons and ammunitions will soon come to an end and Sana’a will fall.
The situation of war in Yemen
was assessed by the Supreme National Security Council. There were two views in
this assessment; one came from the foreign affairs ministry that was supported
by Mohammad Javad Zarif, Iran’s FM, who believed that Yemen’s situation doesn’t
have a military solution and Iran must enter negotiations with the Saudis.
Recently Saudi Arabia responded to Zarif’s letter and said that they are ready
for negotiations. Zarif pointed out to the remarks of the Houthi representative
saying that sooner or later Yemen will fall to the Saudis. The second view that
was represented by Quds Force commanders rejected any negotiations with the
Saudis and said that currently the Saudis have the upper hand and we mustn’t
enter negotiations with them. They will enter with a higher leverage and Iran
will end up losing the negotiations. Therefore we must help the Ansarollah
militias to attack the areas they’ve lost and retake them and then enter
negotiation with the Saudis. In order to prove their point they said that we
have the experience of Syria, which was a very good one. They also said that
aiding the Houthis in Yemen comes with its own problems, yet we have experience
in this regard and we can aid them through sea routes. They said that we must
ask the US to end its intelligence support to the Saudis so that we could help
Yemen easier.
In the end the Supreme National
Security Council decided that if the Saudis intend to carry out their final
attack against Sana’a, Iran will officially enter the war in Yemen and do
everything it can to hold the Ansarollah in power. Iran will also use air and
sea routes and through Amman to give military aid. Iran’s aids will include
various small and heavy arms and short-range and long-range missiles.
Quds Force commanders in the
meeting said that we are not going to dispatch ground forces to Yemen yet we
will use other Jihadi groups in other countries such as Iraq and of course
Ansarollah has said that they don’t have man shortage and only need developed
weaponry.
One of the Quds Force commanders
in the session said: “the Yemen war will probably last between 4 to 7 years and
we must prepare ourselves. We have expensed hundreds of millions of dollars in
our foreign policies therefore we must make it to the end of the path and
continue.”
In this session Khamenei’s
representative said: “whether the nuclear deal is adopted or not, this will be
our foreign policy therefore base your decisions on Iran’s current policy and
not what the US wants from us. Taking this into consideration, if the Yemen war
lasts not 7 years but 70 years, Iran is ready to aid the revolutionary forces
of this country.”
From what is realized from the
Supreme National Security Council session, Iran has decided to continue its
interventions in Yemen. Iran’s plan is to send sophisticated weaponry and
ammunition to Yemen for the Ansarollah group and forces loyal to Ali Abdullah
Saleh. It will also use Shiite groups affiliated to the Quds Force in other
countries such as Iraq and dispatch them to Yemen.
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