Lebanon's Hizbollah and Yemen's Houthis open up on links

They are hundreds of miles apart and their local struggles have little in common, yet Lebanon's Shia force Hizbollah and Yemen's Houthi rebels are opening up about a relationship forged by sectarian politics transforming the Middle East.

With regional tensions exacerbated by a Gulf-backed coalition striking the Houthis, the long rumoured but never proven ties are becoming visible. Some sources say Iran-backed Hizbollah may even be providing direct support to their Yemeni allies - a sign of how the rivalry between Sunni Gulf states and Shia Iran is reshaping local conflicts. Linked by Iranian patronage and emboldened by the fight in Yemen, the Hizbollah-Houthi relationship may fuel rival Sunni states' fears of expanding Shia alliances, analysts say.

Officially, Hizbollah has made no comment on its role with the Houthis, but a political source close to the group's leadership said the relationship goes back several years and hinted it may be playing an advisory role to Houthi forces. "Perhaps a limited role, giving advice and counsel, but there is no presence on the ground," the source said. Other Hizbollah fighters say they have played a more active role on the ground in Yemen.

A Houthi official who met with the Financial Times in Beirut said relations with the Lebanese movement stretch back over a decade.

"This is not a relationship with one side in control and the other mindlessly following. We exchange experience and ideology," he said, asking not to be identified due to the sensitivity of the subject. "We have our own character, our own way of doing things," he stressed. "The goal is not to build a Hizbollah model in Yemen."

Yet that is exactly the fear plaguing Sunni Gulf countries in the coalition launching air strikes across Yemen, the Arab world's poorest country and Saudi Arabia's southern neighbour. So far, the Saudi-led campaign has failed to weaken Houthi forces that have swept from their northern stronghold down to the capital Sanaa and are now pushing to take the southern port city of Aden away from Gulf-backed President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi.<

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Gulf officials say the Yemen campaign was partly designed to stop Iran from turning the Houthis, from Yemen's Zaidi Shia sect, into a copy of the Shia Lebanese movement, a formidable guerrilla force.

But such efforts may have come too late. The Houthis have since 2004 fought off six offensives led by ex-president Ali Abdullah Saleh, ironically now their main ally. A Hizbollah commander, who withheld his name because members are not permitted to speak to media, said Houthis and Hizbollah trained together for the past 10 years. "They trained with us in Iran, then we trained them here and in Yemen. Yemenis are fierce and intelligent fighters, you can't imagine what they have been through," he said, referring to the fierce mountain battles Houthis fought for nearly a decade. "They have plenty of experience now and can train on their own."

Hizbollah has long been suspected of channelling Iranian support to the Houthis. For years, Houthi officials have been spotted at Beirut hotels and are believed to be hosted on Iran's dime. The Houthi television channel al-Maseera is based in Beirut's Hizbollah-controlled southern suburbs. "There's been an active Houthi office in Beirut, and the city has been a popular meeting place between Yemeni political groups and other regional actors for some time," said Yemen analyst Adam Baron, a visiting fellow at the European Council of Foreign Relations.

Hard evidence is scarce, but sources in Washington, Riyadh and London insist Hizbollah and Iranian Revolutionary Guard experts are in Yemen, most likely for planning and co-ordination.

Analysts say any military links are likely quite limited. Hizbollah - already fighting in Syria to prop up President Bashar al-Assad and playing a small role supporting Shia militias in Iraq - is militarily stretched and based far away from Yemen. While two Hizbollah members said hundreds of Lebanese and Iranian trainers and military advisers are in Yemen already, these claims were impossible to verify.

"The Iranians are probably dealing with missile batteries and other weaponry. We are the guerrilla experts, so we give advice about the best timings to strike back, when to hold back," said one Hizbollah fighter. The Hizbollah commander, said eight Hizbollah members had died in fighting in Yemen, a claim impossible to verify but which shows the interest Hizbollah members have in portraying themselves as part of the fight.

"Everyone thought the Saudis were going to destroy the Houthis and they didn't," Mr Baron said. It's not surprising groups like Hizbollah want to take advantage. There is definitely a propaganda element there."

But while Houthi figures stress their independence from direct immediate Iranian or Hizbollah oversight, Hizbollah fighters see the fight in Yemen as a sign that their organisation, whose name in Arabic means "Party of God", is now a regional brand.

"We shouldn't be called Party of God. We're not a party now, we're international. We're in Syria, we're in Palestine, we're in Iraq and we're in Yemen," said the Hizbollah commander. "We are wherever the oppressed need us . . . Hizbollah is the school where every freedom-seeking man wants to learn."

Additional reporting by Roula Khalaf and Peter Salisbury

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