Iran: Saying Tehran Issues Orders to Sana'a is Not Accurate
Secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, Mohsen Rezaei, said that the statement that the Mocha operation was an Iranian operation or the perception that Tehran issues operational orders to Sana'a is not accurate.
Rezaei added in statements on Thursday: "We are responsible for our decisions in the Strait of Hormuz, and Ansar Allah (the Houthis) are responsible for their decisions in Bab el-Mandeb."
He continued: We are not announcing a joint Iranian-Yemeni decision to completely close Bab el-Mandeb to commercial shipping.
The Iranian official said that "Ansar Allah (the Houthis) are not an Iranian military unit, and the decision regarding Yemeni territory is made by the Yemenis themselves."
He noted that Iran has political relations with Ansar Allah (the Houthis) and has not hidden its support for their resistance.
On September 20, 2026, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported that experts from the Iranian "Revolutionary Guard" working with the Houthi group visited the Bab el-Mandeb area to discuss installing radars and overseeing the digging of tunnels in the hills overlooking the strait.
It added, citing sources it described as Houthi military leaders, that the experts visited Bab el-Mandeb, the port and airport of Mocha, and the Jabal al-Nar camp east of the city, after arriving from Hodeidah governorate, during two separate visits.
The sources added that they supervised the digging of tunnels in the hills overlooking Mocha and Bab el-Mandeb, and discussed installing radars near Mocha and on Zuqar Island in the southern Red Sea.
No comment was issued by the Houthis or Iran on this matter; however, Minister of Information Moammar al-Eryani said a month before the announcement of the Revolutionary Guard experts' visit that the Houthis were planning to control coastal areas adjacent to the Bab el-Mandeb strait.
Al-Eryani told Agence France-Presse (AFP), saying: "Our confirmed information indicates that the Houthis are working, under the guidance and support of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, to create conditions to control the Bab el-Mandeb strait, by expanding on the west coast and trying to control Yemen's strategic islands in the Red Sea."
المصدر: Al-Mahriah Net + open sources
