Senior Iranian official tells British newspaper that Tehran is scaling back its support for regional proxy groups to focus on direct threats emanating from Trump administration
Iran has reportedly ordered its military personnel to leave Yemen and is pulling back its support for the Houthis amid extensive US airstrikes on the rebel group.
The British Telegraph newspaper on Thursday cited a “senior Iranian official” saying that Tehran is scaling back its support of its regional proxies to focus on the direct threats emanating from the US administration.
“Every meeting is dominated by discussions about [US President Donald Trump],” the official was quoted as saying.
According to the official, Iran’s pullback from Yemen was designed to avoid the possibility of escalation if an Iranian soldier is killed in US airstrikes there.
Tehran is focusing its efforts instead on how to respond to Trump and his litany of threats, and “none of the regional groups we previously supported are being discussed,” the official said.
“They were part of a chain that relied on Nasrallah and Assad, and keeping only one part of that chain for the future makes no sense,” the official continued, referring respectively to the former leaders of the Hezbollah terror group and Syria.
The Telegraph report came amid a US aerial campaign agains the Houthis that has seen near-daily strikes in rebel-held areas of Yemen since March 15. The strikes are aimed at stopping the Iran-backed group from attacking commercial shipping in solidarity with the Palestinian terrorist organization Hamas.
Washington has since said it is sending a second aircraft carrier group to Middle East waters to bolster its campaign to “deter aggression and protect the free flow of commerce.”
The Houthis had halted their attacks on shipping during a six-week ceasefire in Gaza earlier this year, but they announced they were resuming them after Israel cut off aid to the territory before returning to fighting against Hamas.
Since then, the Houthis have launched drone and missile attacks on both US warships and Israel.
On Thursday, the Houthis said a strike they blamed on the United States killed a guard at a communications tower, among more than 30 strikes on rebel-held parts of Yemen.
“An American aggression targeted the communications network in… Ibb governorate, leading to the martyrdom of Abdulwasim Abdulwahab Zahir, the communications tower guard,” Houthi health ministry spokesman Anees Alasbahi said on social media.
Earlier, the Houthis’ Al-Masirah television said more than 20 strikes had hit Saada province, the rebels’ stronghold in the northern mountains.
It said Washington had carried out two strikes on vehicles, one south of the rebel-held capital Sanaa and another in Saada province.
In a video statement, Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree said the United States had launched “over the past few hours more than 36 air strikes” in different parts of the country.
Saree said the group had targeted US aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman in response.
He also claimed the group had shot down an “American MQ-9 drone” as it was “carrying out hostile missions” in Hodeida province on the Red Sea coast.
Content retrieved from: https://www.timesofisrael.com/report-iran-pulling-forces-out-of-yemen-amid-intensive-us-airstrikes-on-houthis/.
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