By Faisal Abu Bakr | 2025-02-11

ADEN -- The Houthis are using Somali al-Qaeda affiliate al-Shabaab to expand and secure their supply lines in the Horn of Africa in service of the Iranian regime's regional agenda, sources in Yemen said.

The Iranian regime, which is the Houthis' key backer and also harbors al-Qaeda, seeks to expands its interests in the Horn of Africa, Red Sea and Bab al-Mandeb strait, with the aid of both groups.

The Houthis and al-Shabaab meanwhile seek to continue the flow of weapons and to profit from the smuggling of arms and contraband, Abaad Center for Strategic Studies director Abdul Salam Mohammed told Al-Fassel.

The two groups work together "based on a unified vision centered on threatening regional and maritime security and neighboring countries," Mohammed said.

Houthis' external expansion

The Houthis have begun to expand outside Yemen, "and this is the danger we have been warning about," political analyst Mahmoud al-Taher told Al-Fassel.

They are seeking to secure external supply lines in addition to facilitating the smuggling of weapons and logistical materials via the Somali and Yemeni coasts.

"This cooperation enhances the Houthis' military and economic capabilities, expands their influence in the region, and may further complicate international efforts to combat terrorism in the Horn of Africa," al-Taher said.

Relations between the Houthis and al-Shabaab are of mutual benefit for both parties and the Iranian regime, political analyst Faisal Ahmed told Al-Fassel.

The Iranian regime funds the Houthis, he said, and also hosts al-Qaeda's central branch and its de facto leader Saif al-Adel.

It seeks to control Bab al-Mandeb, he added, "and this will not happen unless these two groups control the two banks of the strait."

Arms smuggling via Somali coast

The Iranian regime uses the Somali coast to smuggle weapons to the Houthis, as the United Nations panel of experts on Yemen has brought to light, Ahmed said.

"This serves the interests of Iran and the Houthis, and it also allows al-Shabaab to obtain some Iranian weapons," he said. Iran also "has used Somali pirates in arms smuggling operations to its Houthi proxies in Yemen through al-Shabaab."

The Houthis provided al-Qaeda with weapons "such as drones and ballistic missiles, and thus this is an important motive for al-Shabaab to continue working and cooperating with the Houthis and Iran," he noted.

The Houthis will not dispense with the Iranian regime, Ahmed said, "but will find more than one supporter and contributor to arms and drug smuggling operations as part of their efforts to threaten regional and maritime security."