● Historic ties to and alignment with hardline Iranian factions:
○ Ali Akbar Velayati - a senior advisor to the Iranian Supreme Leader: “I have seen the news of your great victories. We have been comforted greatly and I congratulate you because our relations with the Houthis goes back to the first years of the victory of the [Iranian] revolution. We must also say that we are aware of the teachings of the scholar Sadr [Badr] al-Deen al-Houthi, the ideological father of Ansar Allah. We are adamant the revolutionary Houthi leaders must lead the courageous efforts in Yemen.”
○ Essam al-Emad, a Qom-based Houthi scholar and student of Ansar Allah leader Hussein al-Houthi: “the relationship of Hussein al-Houthi with Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei is like the relationship with Hassan Nasrallah. Hussein Houthi said we need to emulate the Islamic Republic of Iran.”
○ According to Mohsen Milani: “Inspired by Iran’s Islamic Revolution, he [Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi] visited Iran in 1986.”
○ According to a RAND study: Hussein al-Houthi in his speeches “looks to to Iran as an example of strength in the Muslim world”