Iran giving Houthis ‘significant’ and ‘lethal’ support: US envoy

US special envoy on Yemen Tim Lenderking says fighting in Marib is ‘the single biggest threat to peace efforts’.

Iran’s support for Yemen’s Houthi movement is “quite significant and it’s lethal”, US Special Envoy for Yemen Tim Lenderking said on Wednesday, as he called a battle for Yemen’s gas-rich Marib region the single biggest threat to peace efforts. Lenderking told US lawmakers that Iran supports the Houthis in several ways, including through training, providing lethal support and helping them “fine-tune” their drone and missile programs. “Unfortunately all of this is working to very strong effects as we see more and more attacks on the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia – and potentially other countries – more accuracy and more lethality. So this is a great concern to us,” Lenderking told a hearing of the US House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee.