Telegraph: Iran supplied Houthis with weapons after its proxies collapsed to continue its attacks for years

A British report quoted the Yemeni army’s warnings that the Houthis are growing stronger as they are supplied with new Iranian weapons, while reviewing the possibility of assassinating the group’s leader, Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, the military capabilities possessed by the Houthis, and the role of the next Trump administration.

According to the British newspaper "The Telegraph" , Iran has given militias enough weapons to continue their attacks on Israel and global shipping "for years to come", and a spokesman for the Yemeni army said that Iran is sending more weapons to the Houthis following the collapse of its other proxy groups in the Middle East.

The British newspaper "The Telegraph" quoted Abdul Basit Al-Bahr, spokesman for the Yemeni army in Taiz Governorate, as saying that "Iran has provided the Houthi militias with sufficient supplies to continue their strikes on Israel and their attacks on global shipping" for years to come."

Al-Bahr added that the escalation is "clear evidence that Iran is increasing its support for the Houthis after the weakening of Hamas and Hezbollah and the fall of the Assad regime in the region," noting that the Houthis possess "high-level missiles and aircraft, and they have workshops for assembling and manufacturing drones and developing missiles with Iranian expertise."

"There is ongoing smuggling by Iran of weapons parts, especially drones and missiles, which are assembled internally. We cannot talk about a specific number for all of this, but according to the operations carried out by the Houthis, we believe that the quantity is large and the stockpile could last for years to come," he continued.

On Thursday, the Houthis launched their sixth missile attack on Israel since Christmas, as incidents have become more frequent despite fierce Israeli airstrikes on the group's vital infrastructure.

The United States and Britain have also carried out airstrikes on Houthi weapons facilities since the militia began targeting global shipping routes in November 2023, but not enough to prevent continued Houthi military operations.

Targeting the leader of the Houthi group

The Houthis now control a large swath of Yemen, home to about 80 percent of the population, and clashes continue with the internationally recognized government’s army based in the rest of the country. Al-Bahr said that if the campaign against the group is to have any chance of success, its leader, Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, must be eliminated.

The Telegraph newspaper quoted an Israeli security source as saying that the Houthis would face difficulty in recovering from such a strike, referring to the targeting of the group’s leader, Abdul-Malik al-Houthi.

The source said: “The Houthi group’s system depends on its crazy leader, and if Israel and its allies are able to eliminate Abdul Malik and his brother, the entire system will collapse. He is the center of the tribe and the entire operation.”

"An assassination attempt may follow if the group continues to target civilian cities and towns in Israel," he said.

Houthi capabilities

A separate Israeli intelligence source acknowledged that the Houthis had surprised the Israeli army but questioned their ability to sustain the intensity of their campaign. “They don’t have the capacity that Hezbollah has, but they still have their own production,” he said.

“Some of this production has been damaged by the US and UK attacks, but not all of it, and it is spread across Yemen, so it is not easy to locate or address because it is not in one place,” he added. “But I do not see this going on for years.”

Ali al-Bukhaiti, a former Houthi spokesman who defected in 2015, said stockpiles were not unlimited and would already be depleted at the current level of operations.

“The Houthis certainly have a huge stockpile of weapons that will enable them to fight for years against the Yemeni parties, but the weapons they use against Israel are fewer and come from Iran,” he told the British newspaper The Telegraph, from the United Kingdom, where he is now seeking political asylum.

But Tehran "intensified its support for the Houthis after the fall of the Assad regime and the ceasefire agreement with Hezbollah, and its support is what enabled the Houthis to target Tel Aviv, and as long as Iran has not paid the price for that yet, it will continue, as they [the Houthis] are its last ball in the region."

The Trump Administration and Houthi Threats

An Israeli intelligence source told the Telegraph that Israel was struggling to gather information on the Houthis, as it did not consider the group a threat until the attacks of October 7, 2023.

“All along we thought the Houthis were not an Israeli problem, they were a problem for the United States, Saudi Arabia and the Emirates,” he added. “There are no borders, and they are very far away, so the human options are fewer,” he said, noting that intelligence gathering “starts from scratch.”

Mark Toth, an American security and economic expert, said that Donald Trump taking office later this month could lead to an escalation of American strikes on the Houthis.

"Trump cannot allow this situation to continue, especially if he wants to remain consistent with his pledge to re-apply 'maximum pressure' against Iran," he added.

“In contrast to when Trump left office in January 2021, the Houthis are now an integral part of Iran’s broader “axis of resistance” against Israel — and Trump has vowed to end Tehran’s malign influence across the Middle East,” he continued.

“Trump will also face a Houthi force that is now capable of striking US military assets in Djibouti and Eritrea,” he said.