Confessions of detained sailors uncover routes and operations linking Iran to Houthi weapons shipments via regional hubs.
Confessions from detained sailors have revealed detailed smuggling routes used by Yemen’s Houthi militants to receive weapons from the Iranian regime, underscoring the central role of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in sustaining the group’s military capabilities.
According to Asharq Al-Awsat, Yemeni forces intercepted a vessel in the Red Sea in July and arrested seven sailors on board. The detainees described a large-scale weapons trafficking network coordinated by the IRGC, with routes passing through Beirut, Damascus, Somalia, and Djibouti before reaching Houthi-controlled ports such as Hodeidah.
The confessions, broadcast by Yemen’s al-Joumhouriya television, showed four sailors—identified as Amer Masawa, Ali Qassir, Issa Qassir, and Abdullah Afifi—admitting to transporting arms shipments from Iran’s Bandar Abbas port to Hodeidah.
Masawa recounted how, in 2023, a Houthi official tasked him with retrieving a ship from Iran. After receiving passports in Houthi-controlled Sanaa, the group traveled via Amman to Beirut, where they stayed in a safehouse before being moved to Damascus and flown to Tehran. There, they were taken to a Houthi-run camp managed by senior figure Mohammed al-Talebi, identified as a key liaison in the IRGC-backed smuggling network.
Following ten days of preparation, the sailors were relocated to Bandar Abbas, where Talebi briefed them on their mission and arranged for ten Somali sailors to join the operation.
Another sailor, Ali Qassir, described a different route. Recruited through Houthi contacts in Hodeidah’s al-Salif port, he traveled overland through Yemen’s eastern provinces to Oman, before flying from Muscat to Bandar Abbas. There, he joined other operatives at the Houthi camp and received instructions from Talebi.
The smugglers were told their cargo consisted of children’s toys, power generators, and cancer medication requiring refrigeration. In reality, the shipment contained rockets and other weapons. The deception continued until their vessel broke down off Oman’s coast, leading to a temporary stay in Muscat.
A third sailor said the crew believed they were transporting building equipment, only for the Yemeni coastguard to discover the weapons onboard.
The confessions confirmed that the IRGC operates three primary arms-smuggling routes to Yemen: directly from Bandar Abbas to al-Salif, via Somalia, and via Djibouti. The smugglers avoided international patrols in the Gulf of Aden and Red Sea by sailing at night through the Bab al-Mandeb Strait, west of established shipping lanes, to evade detection by Yemeni forces.
These revelations provide rare, direct evidence of the Iranian regime’s logistical and operational role in arming the Houthis, in violation of international sanctions and regional security agreements.
Based on reporting by Asharq Al-Awsat, August 11, 2025.
