Report: Iran Flew Commanders, Missile Parts and Gold to Houthis Aboard “Civilian” Flight

An Iranian passenger flight that supposedly transported civilians home from a funeral may have been carrying a few additional items not normally listed under complimentary baggage.

Among them: senior military commanders, missile components, drone equipment and gold.

Iran secretly transported members of its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, military advisers and weapons-related equipment to Houthi-controlled Yemen aboard a Mahan Air flight earlier this month, according to an exclusive Reuters investigation.

Four sources familiar with the operation said the July 13 flight carried between 10 and 21 IRGC personnel, including senior commanders sent to assist the Houthis with missile operations and military training.

The aircraft reportedly also carried components for short- and medium-range missiles, drone equipment and an unspecified quantity of gold intended to finance Houthi operations.

That would make it considerably more eventful than the average flight on which the most suspicious cargo is somebody’s oversized carry-on bag.

The plane departed Tehran and was originally scheduled to land in Sanaa, the Houthi-controlled capital of Yemen. It was diverted to the Red Sea port city of Hodeidah after the Sanaa airport came under attack by forces aligned with Yemen’s Saudi-backed government.

Iran insists the flight was entirely innocent.

An Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman said the aircraft was returning members of a Houthi delegation who had traveled to Tehran for the funeral of slain Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The plane also reportedly carried Yemeni civilians who had received medical treatment in Iran.

A Houthi media official who said he was aboard the aircraft dismissed the allegations about IRGC commanders and military equipment as “lies and fabrications.” He maintained that all of the passengers were civilians.

The Reuters sources told a rather different story.

Two Iranian sources said the commanders were sent to provide operational support and training involving new missile systems. Yemen’s information minister, representing the internationally recognized government, said the mission was intended to strengthen Houthi forces and prepare them to threaten international shipping in the Red Sea.

A regional intelligence analyst separately confirmed the reported arrival of Iranian advisers and said the cargo included missile and drone components similar to weapons previously used against Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

The name of the airline does little to make the allegations sound less plausible.

Mahan Air has been under American sanctions since 2011 for allegedly transporting IRGC-Quds Force personnel, weapons, equipment and money around the Middle East. The U.S. Treasury Department has repeatedly described the company as a commercial airline used to conceal Iranian military transportation.

American officials have accused Mahan Air of moving fighters and weapons to Syria, transporting personnel for Hezbollah and omitting sensitive passengers and cargo from official flight manifests.

In April, the Treasury Department imposed additional sanctions against people, companies and aircraft connected with Mahan Air, saying the airline remained involved in transporting Iranian drones and weapons.

Three days after the July 13 flight arrived in Yemen, reports emerged that Iran had instructed the Houthis to prepare to close the Red Sea oil route if the United States attacked Iranian power facilities.

The Houthis subsequently announced a naval blockade of Saudi Arabia and attacked two Saudi oil tankers in the Red Sea.

Iran maintains that this was all unrelated and continues to deny supplying the Houthis with missile capabilities.

If the allegations are accurate, however, Tehran did not merely send its allies a few crates of equipment. It sent the instructors, the replacement parts and something resembling a portable military expense account.

The operation would also provide new evidence that Iran is attempting to expand the war into the Red Sea after already creating a near-total blockade around the Strait of Hormuz.

The Houthis control territory overlooking the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, a narrow waterway connecting the Red Sea with the Gulf of Aden. Ships using the Suez Canal must pass through it, making the route critically important to international trade and oil transportation.

Threatening both Hormuz and Bab el-Mandeb gives Iran and its allies leverage over two of the world’s most important maritime chokepoints.

It also helps explain why a supposedly routine passenger flight might require military advisers, missile parts, drone equipment and gold.

Apparently, the Houthis’ luggage allowance is extremely generous.