Iran's most powerful ally warns Trump of "dire consequences" if US strikes

Iran‘s ally in Yemen has shared with Newsweek a warning for President Donald Trump should he act on threats to strike the Islamic Republic as it cracks down on large-scale demonstrations.

The U.S. leader has repeatedly asserted that he would intervene if Iranian security forces were found to have killed protesters who have taken to the streets in a movement that began two weeks ago as an expression of discontent over the country’s ailing economic situation and has since spread into a nationwide challenge to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s rule.

In his latest message posted Tuesday after Iranian officials had begun to declare an end to the mass unrest, Trump called on “Iranian patriots” to “keep protesting” and “save the names of the killers and abusers,” who were set to “pay a big price.” He announced an end to all talks with Iranian officials and said that “help is on the way,” without specifying a next course of action.

As speculation mounts of a potential U.S. military operation, with reports indicating that the Pentagon has briefed the president on potential options, a source within Yemen’s Ansar Allah, also known as the Houthi movement, told Newsweek that “it will not accept any American or Zionist aggression against any Arab or Islamic country.”

“Any new Zionist-American aggression in our region will have dire consequences for the aggressors themselves,” the Ansar Allah source said, “and its results will be contrary to their expectations and calculations.”

Ansar Allah emerged out of a 1990s Zaidi Shiite Muslim revival movement, led by Hussein al-Houthi until his death at the hands of Yemeni security forces in 2004. A decade later, as Yemen was gripped by the lingering unrest of the Arab Spring movement that toppled its longtime leader, President Ali Abdullah Saleh, Houthi’s younger brother, Abdel-Malik al-Houthi, led Ansar Allah to a successful takeover of the capital Sanaa, consolidating control of much of northern Yemen.

Despite a yearslong Saudi-backed campaign in support of forces of Yemen’s still-internationally recognized government, Ansar Allah remains in control of up to a third of the country and around 80 percent of Yemen’s roughly 40 million people. Hostilities largely halted after an April 2022 ceasefire brokered by the United Nations, but Ansar Allah opened a separate front against Israel and ships accused of trading with the country after war erupted in the Gaza Strip in October 2023.

Ansar Allah emerged throughout the conflict as one of the most potent factions of the Axis of Resistance. While other factions, like the Lebanese Hezbollah and Islamic Resistance in Iraq, also intervened in support of the Palestinian Hamas movement, Ansar Allah’s offensives from abroad at one point brought trade through the Suez Canal, one of the world’s most critical trade choke points, down by around two-thirds.

The group paused attacks against U.S. warships after a ceasefire signed in May with Trump and halted strikes on Israel and commercial vessels after the Gaza ceasefire deal reached between Israel and Hamas in October. Despite having suffered numerous rounds of U.S. and Israeli strikes, Ansar Allah is believed to retain substantial command and control capacity as well as a significant arsenal of missiles and drones, which opponents alleged have been supplied from Iran.

Both Iran and Ansar Allah deny any direct military connection, though they have openly hailed their alliance as part of the Axis of Resistance coalition.

With Iran and its powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) now focusing on internal security efforts, the Ansar Allah source asserted that the group remained well-equipped to take on any foes, a conviction rooted in religious zeal.

“This is because we rely on God and trust in him, and we are confident that he will grant us a great victory beyond anyone’s imagination,” the Ansar Allah source said. “These are firm promises in the Holy Quran, which we believe in and trust completely. We have prepared ourselves in every way for the coming battle with great care and determination, also in accordance with God’s instructions in the Quran regarding preparation and readiness.”

“We are completely confident in achieving a historic victory, God willing,” the source continued. “We have no worries or doubts about our ability, relying on God and trusting in him, to confront any new aggression, and even to achieve a great historical victory.”

he Ansar Allah source also portrayed the unrest gripping Iran as part of a deliberate initiative by Trump, alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, designed to undermine the Islamic Republic, mirroring a narrative espoused by Iranian leadership.

The alleged effort, according to the source, was a continuation of the broader confrontation surrounding the war in Gaza, including the 12-day war between Iran and Israel that also saw direct U.S. strikes on three Iranian nuclear sites in June.

“Our general, clear, and firm conviction, shared by the majority of the Yemeni people and the Arab and Islamic nations, is that the sabotage occurring inside Iran is a Zionist and American act of aggression, an extension of the previous 12-day aggression against Iran,” the Ansar Allah source said. “It is part of the same battle that has been ongoing for the past two years in Gaza, and there is no separation between them. This is our conviction, and reality supports it.”

“Trump himself is behind the sabotage inside Iran, as are the war criminals among the leaders of the Israeli enemy entity, who are also behind the sabotage and chaos in Iran,” the source added. “Therefore, all sincere and loyal members of our nation will stand by the Islamic Republic of Iran against any aggression against it.”

While the Iranian protests have garnered U.S. and Israeli support, as well as the backing of demonstrators in both countries and in Europe, the Ansar Allah source asserted that “there is unprecedented sympathy for the Islamic Republic of Iran and rejection of the aggression against it,” as well as “unprecedented internal Iranian popular support for its leadership, as demonstrated by the million-strong marches that took place yesterday throughout Iran, which were broadcast live and were truly astonishing.”

Iranian officials and state-sponsored media outlets depicted the pro-government demonstrations Monday as a manifestation of support for the Islamic Republic. A day earlier, however, traditionally state-aligned media outlets also depicted what appeared to be mass casualties inflicted during the demonstrations.

Iran Human Rights, a Norway-based monitor, has reported Tuesday that at least 734 protesters had been killed, with potentially thousands more dead. The group also cited Iranian state media as reporting on the deaths of around 121 members of the security forces, including IRGC personnel.

Trump, who last week indicated that at least some of the deaths may have been the result of “stampedes” amid the chaotic scenes in Iran, told reporters Tuesday that he has yet to be able to obtain an accurate figure of deaths, though he suspected that there had been “a lot.”

He also declined to elaborate on what he meant in his earlier social media post hinting at upcoming support for protesters, simply saying, “You’re going to have to figure that one out.”

In a statement shared with Newsweek and published on social media later Tuesday, the Iranian Mission to the United Nations said that “U.S. fantasies and policy toward Iran are rooted in regime change, with sanctions, threats, engineered unrest, and chaos serving as the modus operandi to manufacture a pretext for military intervention.”

“This playbook has failed before,” the Iranian Mission said. “The Iranian people will defend their country—and, most assuredly, it will fail again.”

While Ansar Allah chief Abdul-Malek al-Houthi has thus far evaded the kind of fate suffered by fellow Axis of Resistance leaders like former Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed in a September 2024 Israeli strike, and former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who was ousted by rebel forces in December of that year, new unrest has emerged across Yemen’s long-frozen front lines in recent weeks.

Though nominally aligned with Saudi-supported Presidential Leadership Council Chair Rashad al-Alimi, the United Arab Emirates (UAE)-backed Southern Transitional Council, which seeks to establish a separate state in southern Yemen, seized control of key government positions late last year, raising tensions between Abu Dhabi and Riyadh. The move, however, was answered with a swift Saudi-aided counteroffensive that seized southern separatist-held territories, leading to the dissolution of the Southern Transitional Council and withdrawal of UAE forces from Yemen.

Ansar Allah watched on the sidelines of the dramatic clash between its two foes. Now, with its own ally, Iran, consumed by internal crisis, the Ansar Allah source warned against any attempts by regional countries to leverage the situation into a renewed attempt to unseat the group’s hold on much of the country.

“As for those in the region who involve themselves with the Israeli and American enemies, they will suffer unparalleled losses and will regret it deeply, but their regret will be of no avail,” the Ansar Allah source said. “These are all firm convictions and absolute certainties stemming from undeniable facts and Quranic promises.”