Iranian Smuggling to the Houthis Continues
While the war in the Gulf continues, elsewhere it is business as usual. Dhows have still been leaving Iranian ports, smuggling materials to the Houthis in Yemen.
The job of intercepting Iranian smuggling in the Bab el Mandeb and southern Red Sea has now been transferred to the Southern Giants Forces. The newly invigorated Internationally Recognized Government (IRGC) has shuffled Southern Giants Forces out of Aden, where their loyalty to the now weakened separatist Southern Transition Council (STC) posed a political threat, and positioned them instead away from population centers on Yemen's southwest Lahij coast. Here, they have replaced the National Resistance Forces (NRF) led by Tareq Saleh, who, having also been sponsored by the STC, is now weighing in behind the IRGC. His NRF units have been transferred inland to bolster the front line with the Houthis in the Taiz area. Hence, in recent days, interceptions taking place at sea in the Bab el Mandeb area have been carried out by the 2nd Brigade of the Southern Giants Forces.
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On March 23, the 2nd Brigade intercepted a large dhow loaded with medical supplies but also with dual-use materials needed for drone manufacture; interrogation of the crew revealed that this dhow had set off from Bandar Abbas on March 12, sometime after Alliance attacks on naval vessels in Bandar Abbas harbor, illustrating once again that Iranian commercial traffic, including the export of oil and gas, is carrying on very much as normal, despite the war. The cargo was on its way to the Houthi-controlled port of Salif, which appears to be taking in more trade and which appears to have recovered from Alliance attacks rather faster than Hodeidah, which used to be the Houthis' principal port.
The Southern Giants Forces have also made a number of high-volume drug seizures, including the latest, which brought ashore at Ras al Ara a mixed cargo of 623kg of heroin and softer drugs on March 12. The Giant's commander, Brigadier Hamdi Shukri, when interviewed, did not reveal the origin of the drugs. But the IRGC has frequently in the past supplied the Houthis with large volumes of drugs for onward resale, as a method of transferring funds to the Houthis. This area of coastline, just to the east of the Bab el Mandeb narrows in the Gulf of Aden, has historically been a major smuggling and migration route from Somalia, some 35 miles distant.
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The Southern Giants bring a drug seizure ashore at Ras al Ara on March 12
A position that dominates this stretch of coastline just outside the Bab el Mandeb is Perim Island, which until recently was known to be garrisoned by the NRF. Having built an airfield on the island, the United Arab Emirates has for several years maintained a small presence on the island, manning radars and surveillance equipment. Whether the NRF is still in place or has been rotated out is unclear. But mobile shelters used to hangar Emirati drones are still in place, suggesting the Emiratis are perhaps still present. If they had left, they would have taken their drone shelters with them. The force posture on Perim is therefore somewhat unclear, but maintenance of capability on the island will become of considerably more importance should the Houthis resume their campaign of interdicting sea traffic passing through the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.
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