Yemen Says 21 Iranian Revolutionary Guard and Hezbollah Experts Direct Houthi Operations: Interior Minister Calls Them a Complete Military General Staff
Yemen's internationally recognised government said on November 3 that 21 operatives from Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and Lebanon's Hezbollah are directly overseeing Houthi military operations inside Yemen, including operational planning, command and control and weapons development. Interior Minister Major General Ibrahim Ali Haidan said the group is not a training mission but a complete military general staff directing operations on behalf of Tehran, and that foreign involvement has moved from financing, arming and training to direct supervision and participation in planning and managing operations.
According to the statement, the 21 include 14 IRGC members and seven Hezbollah operatives deployed across six areas: eight in Hodeidah, four in Sanaa, four in Saada, two in Hajjah, two in Amran and one in the Al-Khokha district of Hodeidah Governorate. Their portfolio covers command and control, ballistic missile and drone programmes, radar and communications, electronic warfare, logistics and military-component smuggling networks, as well as coordinating naval operations, selecting commercial ships as targets, developing explosive-laden boats and autonomous submarines, and training fighters in mine-laying and siege tactics.
Haidan said the network is led by a senior IRGC commander who operates in Yemen under diplomatic cover as Iran's ambassador, serving as general supervisor of operations, strategic adviser and head of the joint operations room. The statement did not name him or the 21, and did not provide detailed evidence allowing independent verification of the numbers and locations. Yemen's Foreign Ministry separately condemned the presence of the IRGC and Hezbollah as interference in Yemen's sovereignty and a violation of international law.
An October 2024 report by the UN Panel of Experts on Yemen documented that the Houthis had received technical assistance, training, weapons and financial support from Iran, Hezbollah and Iraqi armed groups, but it did not independently confirm the specific figure announced by the Yemeni government this week. Reuters reported in July 2026, citing informed sources including two Iranian ones, that an aircraft arriving in Yemen on July 13 had carried IRGC commanders and advisers, with the Iranian sources estimating between 10 and 21 personnel aboard; no connection has been established between those individuals and the group identified by the Yemeni government. Iran has repeatedly denied providing military support to the Houthis or directing their operations, and in a January 2025 letter to the UN Security Council rejected such findings as unsupported by credible evidence; a Houthi media official in July 2026 likewise denied reports that Iranian military experts had arrived. The allegations reported here are the Yemeni government's account.
Related: Yemen: Houthi Forces Advance to Within 80 Kilometres of Aden
Source: Ministry of Interior of Yemen
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：也门荷台达的一处市场（资料图）。摄影：Rod Waddington，CC BY-SA 2.0，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Photo: A market in Al Hudaydah, Yemen (file photo). By Rod Waddington, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
