Russia and Iran Negotiating to Transfer Anti-Ship Missiles to the Houthis

Reports emerged this week that Iran is seeking to broker the transfer of advanced Yakhont anti-ship missiles from Russia to the Houthi rebels in Yemen. This follows reports in July by the Wall Street Journal news portal that the Kremlin was considering selling these missiles to the Houthis, but had not yet done so. Also, the involvement of Iran in this possible deal has not been previously reported.

The Houthis have sunk two commercial ships, captured another and damaged several in their campaign of maritime terrorism and piracy over the last year. They claim to be doing this out of solidarity with the Palestinians in Gaza, but most of their targets have no connection to Israel. Their actions have, in fact, cost Egypt billions of dollars in transit fees as ships have been forced to forgo the Suez Canal. This re-routing of maritime traffic has also cost the global economy enormous amounts of money and time.

A US Defense Department official said any such transfers of enhanced military technology to the Houthis would “undermine the shared international interest in global freedom of navigation and stability in the Red Sea and broader Middle East.”

“The Saudis are alarmed. We are alarmed, and other regional partners are alarmed,” the official said. “The Houthis are already creating enough damage in the Red Sea, and this would enable them to do more.”

A Houthi spokesman responded to a request for comment about this development by saying the group had no information about any transfer of Russian missiles. Russian and Iranian officials did not respond to requests for comment.

However, Russian officials have previously threatened to supply advanced weapons to adversaries of the West in retaliation for Western supplies of weapons to Ukraine.

In this context, however, it is also important to note that Russia has previously supplied the Yakhont missile to Hezbollah long before the war in Ukraine started.