Iran insists the Houthis are acting on their own and not following orders
Iran reiterated that Yemen's Houthis are acting independently and not following Tehran's orders in their attacks on merchant ships in the Red Sea, state agency IRNA reported on Monday.
“Resistance forces in the region, including Yemen, act independently according to their interests, and the Islamic Republic of Iran does not give them orders,” Iranian Foreign Minister Hosein Amir Abdolahian said in a meeting with clerics on Sunday.
Iran is at the forefront of the so-called Axis of Resistance, a loose alliance of militant organizations such as Hezbollah, the Houthi rebels, the Islamist movement Hamas and Islamic Jihad, as well as countless groups in Iraq and Syria.
Although Tehran denies that the actors in this informal alliance, which are deeply anti-Israel and anti-American, are acting on its orders, it does admit that it supports them.