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My press remarks published by Il Foglio’s Luca Gambardella:
“It is not surprising that in recent weeks media outlets close to the Houthis have expressed messages filled with concern about the fate of the Iranian regime,” Mohammed al-Basha, a Yemen expert and founder of the Virginia-based consultancy Basha Report, told Il Foglio. “Whenever a member of the so-called Axis of Resistance comes under attack, the Houthis rush to its defense. They see themselves as a central actor within the alliance, one of its strongest members, if not the strongest outside Iran.”
After an initial surge, the loss of momentum in protests on the streets of Iran has led the militants in Yemen to believe that the storm has passed. “If at first local media had a very pessimistic reading of events in Tehran, the narrative now appears to have changed,” al-Basha said. “The Houthis now believe the Iranian regime has prevailed after suppressing the protests. Their propaganda channels portray calls by Trump and Netanyahu urging Iranians to rise up against the regime as evidence of external interference in Iran’s internal affairs.”
At present, the Houthis appear more focused on the rivalry between the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia in southern Yemen, a contest that has redrawn the country’s map of influence in favor of Riyadh. Protests in Iran, for now, remain relegated to background noise.