Reports: Iran mediating talks to transfer Russian anti-ship missiles to the Houthis in Yemen
Iran is mediating secret talks between Russia and Yemen’s Houthi group to transfer anti-ship missiles to the armed group, three Western and regional sources said, a development that highlights growing ties between Tehran and Moscow.
Seven sources said Russia hadn’t yet decided whether to transfer the Yakhont missiles, also known as the P-800 Onyx, which experts said would allow the militant group to hit commercial vessels in the Red Sea with greater precision and increase the threat to US and European warships protecting shipping.
Last July, the Wall Street Journal reported that Russia was considering sending missiles.
The Iranian mediation hasn’t been previously reported.
The Houthis has launched numerous drone and missile attacks on ships in key Red Sea shipping lanes since November in support of the Palestinians in Israel’s war in the Gaza Strip.
The attacks have sunk at least two ships and captured a third, disrupting global maritime trade by forcing shipping companies to divert vessels, according to industry sources.
That has raised insurance costs for ships sailing in the Red Sea.
In response, the United States and Britain struck Houthi sites, but the strikes failed to stop the group’s attacks.
Two regional officials familiar with the talks said the Houthis and the Russians have met in Tehran at least twice this year and that talks are underway to provide dozens of missiles, with a range of about 300 kilometers, and that further meetings are expected in Tehran in the coming weeks.
Russia has previously supplied Yakhont missiles to the Iranian-allied Lebanese group Hezbollah.
One of the sources said the talks began under the late Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, who died in a helicopter crash in May.
“Russia is negotiating with the Houthis over the transfer of Yakhont hypersonic anti-ship missiles,” a Western intelligence source said.
“The Iranians are mediating the talks but they don’t want to sign off on them,” he added.
Neither Iran’s mission to the United Nations nor the Russian Defense Ministry responded to requests for comment.
A senior US official declined to name the specific systems that could be transferred but confirmed that Russia was discussing supplying the Houthis with missiles, describing the development as very troubling.
Any efforts to enhance the Houthis’ capabilities would “undermine the shared international interest in global freedom of navigation and stability in the Red Sea and the broader Middle East,” a US Defense Department official said.
Russia and Iran are deepening military ties amid Russia’s war in Ukraine.
The United States said earlier this month that Tehran had transferred ballistic missiles to Moscow for use against Ukraine.
Three sources said that one of the motives for Moscow to arm the Houthis is the possibility that Western countries will decide to allow Ukraine to use Western weapons to strike targets deep inside Russia.
The senior US official said the talks between Russia and the Houthis seem to be tied to our position in Ukraine and what we are willing or unwilling to do regarding Ukraines’s requests to lift restrictions on its use of long-range weapons supplied by the United States to strike targets deep inside Russian territory.
Russian President Vladimir Putin warned in June that Moscow could send advanced long-range weapons — similar to those supplied by the United States and its allies to Ukraine — to Western adversaries around the world.
The Yakhont missile is considered one of the most advanced anti-ship missiles in the world, as its designed to fly above the sea surface to avoid detection and reaches a speed of twice the speed of sound, making it difficult to intercept.
