Iran abandons Houthis under relentless US bombardment

Air strikes on Yemeni rebel group weaken Tehran’s proxy network as military focusses on Trump

Iran has ordered military personnel to leave Yemen, abandoning its Houthi allies as the US escalates an air strike campaign against the rebel group.

A senior Iranian official said the move aimed to avoid direct confrontation with the US if an Iranian soldier was killed.

The official said Iran was also scaling back its strategy of supporting a network of regional proxies to focus on the direct threats from the US instead.

Tehran’s primary concern, the source said, was “Trump and how to deal with him”.

“Every meeting is dominated by discussions about him, and none of the regional groups we previously supported are being discussed,” the source said.

There have been near-daily attacks on the Houthis from the US since group chat messages from senior Trump officials discussing the strikes were leaked to the media last month.

The strikes, which Donald Trump described as “unbelievably successful”, have destroyed important military targets and killed commanders.

A Pentagon spokesman said more warplanes would be sent to the region but did not provide specific details.

However the US’s 124th Fighter Wing announced late last month it was sending “multiple” A-10 Thunderbolt II ground-attack aircraft and 300 airmen to the Middle East.

A Russian military expert in Sanaa, the capital of Yemen, is also believed to be advising the Houthis on how to carry out their attacks while preventing them from targeting Saudi Arabia.

The kingdom has bombarded Houthi forces in Yemen since intervening in its civil war in 2015, and has hosted high-level talks between the US and Russia over a potential ceasefire in Ukraine.

The Houthi rebels have said they have been attacking US warships in the Red Sea, including the aircraft carrier USS Harry S Truman, which has been leading efforts to strike the rebel group.

No ships have been hit yet, but the US Navy said the Houthi fire was the heaviest its sailors have faced since World War II.

The USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier, currently in Asia, is also on its way to the Middle East to support Truman.

The regime source in Iran said: “The view here is that the Houthis will not be able to survive and are living their final months or even days, so there is no point in keeping them on our list.

“They were part of a chain that relied on Nasrallah [the former secretary-general of Hezbollah] and Assad, and keeping only one part of that chain for the future makes no sense.”

Mr Trump has been ratcheting up pressure on Iran to come to the table and discuss limiting its nuclear programme. Last week Mr Trump moved stealth B-2 bombers to the US-UK Diego Garcia military base in the Chagos Islands.

The US position on Iran and the Middle East has radically shifted since Mr Trump came into power.

Sanam Vakil, director of the Middle East and North Africa programme at the Chatham House International Affairs Think Tank, said the increase in US strikes on Yemen was the Trump administration’s attempt to distance itself from the previous administration.

Joe Biden removed the Houthis’ designation as a terror organisation in 2021 – a decision Mr Trump reversed in January.

“Trump is trying to prove that he is more effective at ending and solving conflicts than the Biden administration was,” said Ms Vakil.

“[The strikes are] connected to the maximum pressure campaign that he has endorsed and he wants to simultaneously send a message to Iran and to the axis of resistance that his administration is going to take a bolder approach to destabilising regional activities.”

Mahmoud Shehrah, a former Yemeni diplomat and current associate fellow at the Chatham House, said the US had a “defensive strategy” against the Houthis during Joe Biden’s time in office.

From Amman, Jordan’s capital city, Mr Shehrah told The Telegraph: “The previous miscalculation about the Houthis in the US had made Trump carry heavier strikes against them now and [the US] have started to target individuals and key actors of them.”

He said weapons the Houthis possess are more sophisticated, which makes them more powerful than other non-state actors in Iran’s proxy groups across the Middle East.

Mr Shehrah added: “After the collapse of Hezbollah and Assad’s regime, the Houthis are now on the front line and they have been conducting very intensive attacks – they are escalating and taking adventure because it makes their political life longer in Yemen, according to their own calculation.”

“They get missiles and drones from Iran and rebrand them with Houthi names because they don’t want to show they have links with Iran because of domestic propaganda.”

Israel’s successes against Hamas and Hezbollah, key nodes in Iran’s network of proxies, have created an opportunity to weaken the Islamic regime’s influence.

Analysts also believe Iran’s failed missile strikes on Israel last year have damaged Iran’s ability to present a credible deterrence against external attacks, and also weakened the morale of its allies.

Israel’s military has destroyed much of Hamas’ infrastructure in Gaza, and inflicted heavy losses on Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Iran also failed to protect Bashar al-Assad, the former Syrian president and a key ally, against a rapid rebel offensive that overthrew the dictator in December.

With Hezbollah’s influence diminished, the Houthis have tried to take its place in leading the fight against Israel.

Since the Hamas-led Oct 7 attacks on Israel in 2023, the Houthis have improved their tactics and missile capabilities and built a strong public image.

They control Sanaa, print money, collect taxes, divert aid, smuggle drugs, sell weapons to terror groups in Africa and disrupt international shipping routes in the Red Sea.

They also have a geographic advantage. Yemen’s mountainous terrain, similar to Afghanistan, helps them hide stockpiles of missiles and drones in caves and underground.

Mr Shehrah said: “They are not experienced like Hezbollah but are more aggressive and more dangerous at the same time – Abdul Malik al-Houthi has an ambition of leading the axis of resistance.

“Yemeni streets are full of anger – the Houthis are not paying salaries and have absolute taxation with zero representation so the social base for the Houthis is not very strong, that’s why they rely on the Gaza war.”