By Faisal Abu Bakr | 2024-09-13

ADEN -- Though the Houthis receive arms and funding from the Iranian regime, they are considered more autonomous than other Iranian proxies in the Middle East -- a situation the regime actively seeks to change, analysts said.

The latest sign of the Iranian regime's desire to change its relationship with the Houthis from benefactor to overlord comes with its appointment of a new ambassador to Houthi-controlled Sanaa after roughly three years.

The new Iranian ambassador to Sanaa, Ali Mohammed Ramadani, who was officially received by the Houthis on August 27, is replacing the regime's previous emissary, Hassan Eyrlou.

Eyrlou died of COVID in Tehran in late 2021 after being airlifted out of Sanaa, where he had directed the Houthis' military operations since October 2020 and had become the de facto governor of Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen.

He had increasingly irritated the Houthis as he expanded his role, with Houthi officials telling the Associated Press before his death that he did not coordinate with them and had been exerting an outsized influence in Yemen.

"Ramadani was dispatched as a military ruler, as was his predecessor, Eyrlou," Yemeni Deputy Minister of Justice Faisal al-Majeedi told Al-Fassel.

The Iranian regime seeks to "directly manage the Yemeni portfolio through this person," he said, noting that "local agents no longer meet Iran's aspirations."

The Houthis' illegitimacy

Iran is the only country that recognizes the Houthis' illegitimate government, al-Majeedi told Al-Fassel, noting that the regime's appointment of an ambassador to Sanaa is highly irregular.

"Ambassadors are sent to internationally recognized countries that have international legitimacy and are recognized by the United Nations," he said, adding that the Houthis are "a gang that represents chaos and cannot be considered a state."

Ramadani's appointment is a "subversion of stability, an assault on the legitimacy of the country and furtherance of chaos and violence," he said.

It also ends "any hope for a political process aimed at peace," he added, as it places the Houthis more directly under the control of the Iranian regime, which seeks to keep the protracted conflict alive to serve its own regional agenda.

The Houthis previously appointed an illegitimate ambassador of their own to Syria, another ally of the Iranian regime, with a replacement taking over in November 2020, independent Syrian media outlet Enab Baladi reported in May.

The Houthis had taken over the Yemeni embassy building in Damascus, but last October the Syrian regime expelled them from the building.