Iranian official likens Yemen’s Houthis to Hezbollah in Lebanon

The Shia Houthi group in Yemen is “similar” to Hezbollah in Lebanon, a representative of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in the Quds Force of the Revolutionary Guards said.

“The Houthi group is a similar copy to Lebanon’s Hezbollah, and this group will come into action against enemies of Islam,” Ali Shirazi said during an interview published on Sunday by the Defa Press news agency.

“The Islamic republic directly supports the Houthis in Yemen, Hezbollah in Lebanon, and the popular forces in Syria and Iraq,” he said, adding that “officials in the country have reiterated this many times.”

Shirazi warned that his country will take vengeance for the killing of General Allahdadi and the Hezbollah members killed in Syria’s Quneitra. “The Zionists should wait for a response in any time or place,” he said.

Regarding the developments in Yemen Shirazi remarked: “A coup against Ansar Allah [the Houthis] is a coup against the people. Ansar Allah is not a small group or a special party as it represents the Yemeni people.”

“Hezbollah was formed in Lebanon as a popular force like Al-Basij. Similarly popular forces were also formed in Syria and Iraq, and today we are watching the formation of Ansar Allah in Yemen,” he added.

This is not the first time an Iranian official has publically announce a linked between Yemen’s Houthis and the Iranian ideological project in the region.

Last year, Ali Akbar Velayati, a senior advisor to Ayatollah Khamenei, said Iran supported the “rightful struggles” of the Houthi movement in Yemen, and “considers this movement as part of the successful Islamic Awakening movements”.

The conservative Iranian Kayhan newspaper also considered the Houthis a natural extension for the 1979 Islamic revolution in Iran.

On Sunday, a senior official in the Iranian armed forces, Baqer Zadeh described the Houthis’ “victory in Yemen” as a victory of the Iranian Islamic Revolution saying the Islamic Republic’s border now stretches to the Yemeni capital Sanaa.