Yemen’s Houthi movement recently announced that it began a fundraising drive to procure funds for Lebanese Hezbollah. The fundraising campaign comes after the US levied new sanctions against the Lebanese group last month.
Sam FM, a Houthi-ran radio station based in Sana’a, announced on Friday that it has begun a pledge campaign to donate funds to Lebanese Hezbollah. The radio station said on its Telegram channel that this drive is “to support the mujahideen masters in this world, the purest of people, Hezbollah.”
Sam FM’s Telegram channel also republished an interview its director, Hamoud Mohammad Sharaf, gave to the Houthi-ran Saba News Agency. Sharaf said that the drive is meant to “strengthen the axis of resistance” and that it “represents a surprising and painful blow to the Zionist entity, the enemy of the Arab and Islamic nation.”
The “axis of resistance” refers to a network of state and non-state actors led by Iran that operates against the United States and its allies in the Middle East and beyond.
The Houthis are not thought to be directly subordinate to Tehran like Hezbollah or other proxies. However, its role within the Iranian-led “axis” has become more evident in recent years.
Last summer, Houthi leadership met with Hezbollah’s leadership in Beirut, Lebanon. The Saudi-led coalition also routinely presents evidence that Hezbollah operatives are present in Yemen assisting the Houthis. The US has also long accused both Iran and Hezbollah of supporting, training, and advising Houthi troops.
For his part, Abdel Malek al Houthi, the overall leader of the Houthi movement, has stated on multiple occasions that he would send his men to fight alongside Hezbollah in the event of a new war with Israel.
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1 Comment
This further shows why the attempt to cut off support for Saudi Arabia’s measures to deal with the threats from Yemen were an unwise, misdirected response to the murder of Mr. Khashoggi. This entity is not just a threat to the Saudi Kingdom, it is a regional threat as well.