Khamenei says Houthis act independently, warns against US strikes on Iran
Supreme leader, in televised speech, rejects Trump’s vow to hold Tehran responsible for attacks by Iran-backed Yemen group, which fired at Israel this week amid US strikes
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said Friday that the Houthis, an Iran-aligned terror group that controls much of Yemen, act on their own motivations, after US President Donald Trump said he would hold Tehran accountable for the group’s actions.
Khamenei also warned, “If the US or anyone else commits any malicious act against Iran, they will receive a severe blow,” in comments made in a televised speech, echoed by official social media posts.
Trump said Monday that he would hold Iran responsible for any attacks carried out by the Houthis, as the American military carried out waves of strikes against the group, marking the biggest US military operation in the Middle East since he returned to the White House.
The Houthis, whose slogan calls for “death to America, death to Israel, [and] a curse on the Jews,” have fired four missiles at Israel since Tuesday, all of which were intercepted, and none of which caused any casualties.
The group resumed its attacks on Israel after fighting resumed in the Gaza Strip, amid the collapse of a hostage-ceasefire deal with the Hamas terror group.
Americans, said Khamenei on Friday, “make a big mistake and call regional resistance centers Iranian proxies. What does proxy mean?”
“The Yemeni nation has its own motivation and the resistance groups in the region have their own motivations. Iran doesn’t need proxies,” Khamenei said.
The US “issue threats,” he added, but “we have never started a confrontation or conflict with anyone. However, if anyone acts with malice and initiates it, they will receive severe slaps.”
Over the years, Iran has been aligned with groups across the region that describe themselves as the “Axis of Resistance” to Israel and US influence. Those groups include Hamas, Lebanon’s Hezbollah and various Shiite terror groups in Iraq and Syria.
The Islamic Republic also counted the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad — ousted by Islamist rebels in December — as an ally.
The Houthis began attacking ships in the Red Sea in November 2023, a month after Hamas stormed southern Israel on October 7, 2023, to kill some 1,200 people and take 251 hostages, sparking the war in Gaza.
While the Houthis have said they were attacking Israeli-linked shipping in support of Gaza, they have also targeted vessels with no known Israeli connections.
The Iran-backed rebels also fired some 40 ballistic missiles at Israel, from November 2023 until just days before the Gaza hostage-ceasefire deal was reached in January 2025. They also launched several attack drones at Israel, including one that killed a civilian and wounded several others in Tel Aviv in July.
Responding to the attacks, Israel has carried out several strikes on Houthi sites in Yemen.
The Times of Israel Community.