By Faisal Abu Bakr | 2024-02-08

More than two months after the Iran-backed Houthis captured the Galaxy Leader cargo ship and detained its crew, they disseminated a video showing militants on deck holding a banner bearing the photo of late Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) commander Qassem Soleimani.

Another banner of Iraqi paramilitary commander Abu-Mahdi al-Muhandis, who was killed alongside Soleimani in a US strike in Iraq on January 3, 2020, was also shown aboard the hijacked ship.

The video is "fresh evidence of Iran's involvement in leading and directing the Houthi attacks in the Red Sea and Bab al-Mandeb against commercial ships," said Nabil Abdul Hafeez, Yemen's Deputy Minister of Legal Affairs and Human Rights.

Yemen's Ministry of Human Rights and other Yemeni government bodies have submitted reports to international agencies with the same findings, he told Pishtaz affiliate outlet Al-Fassel.

"We are fully confident that the political and military direction of the battle is managed by Tehran, as the Houthis do not have the military capabilities to direct the battle," he added.

Raising a banner bearing Soleimani's picture on a seized cargo ship refutes the Houthi group's claims of having no relationship with Iran, said Yemeni Deputy Minister of Justice Faisal al-Majeedi.

The IRGC is investing in the Houthis, Iraqi pro-Iran militias, Lebanese Hizbullah and other militias in the region as an inexpensive operation that does not directly involve Iran, he told Al-Fassel.

There are reports that show the Houthis do not have the technology needed to obtain information on ships transiting the Red Sea, including which countries own or manage them, he said.

An Iranian spy ship in the Red Sea -- the Behshad -- is providing the Houthis with intelligence related to the movement of commercial vessels between the Suez Canal and Bab al-Mandeb, military experts say.

"The IRGC is directly involved in the conflict throughout the region, especially in Yemen, and it is providing the Houthis with intelligence," political analyst Mahmoud al-Taher told Al-Fassel.

"Everything that is currently happening is under the direct guidance of the IRGC," he added.

Iran has reportedly sent IRGC experts to train the Houthis on the use of new anti-ship missiles, and the manufacturing and assembling of ballistic missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles or UAVs (drones), al-Taher said.

'Iran's plan to control the Red Sea'

In addition to putting up portraits of Soleimani and al-Muhandis aboard the ship, the Houthis have turned the Galaxy Leader into a "tourist attraction," AFP reported January 28.

For about a dollar per trip, male-only groups of visitors may board wooden boats five times a week to the hijacked car carrier.

Meanwhile, there is still no news of the more than two dozen civilian mariners who were taken hostage when the Houthis seized the ship.

Several days after the incident, the Houthis published a video showing a military general welcoming a group they said was the crew of the Galaxy Leader, but the militants have not provided any information on their fate since.

Political analyst Faris al-Beel told Al-Fassel that "the entire world knows the truth about Tehran's support for the Houthi militia."

The Houthi attacks in the Red Sea are "under the full guidance and direction of Iran," he said, noting that the IRGC has officers in Yemen to train and advise the Houthis.

Raising Soleimani's picture on the seized ship confirms that the Houthis' aggression in the Red Sea is closely related to "Iran's strategic plan of gaining control of this important sea corridor, to threaten and blackmail the international community," he added.

"Since the Houthi militia took control of Sanaa, its goal has clearly been to take control of Bab al-Mandeb, as is the case with the Strait of Hormuz, which is controlled by Iran," al-Beel said.

"The [potential] closure of both Bab al-Mandeb and the Strait of Hormuz poses a real threat to international trade and the global economy," he said.