Hezbollah commanders helped Iranian officials plan and carry out a Houthi offensive that seized the strategic Red Sea port of Mocha this month, according to a former Houthi spokesman who described the operation as a turning point in Tehran’s involvement in Yemen’s war.

Ali al-Bukhaiti, a former Houthi spokesman who later defected from the group, told Middle East Broadcasting Networks (MBN)/Al Hurra that the battle for Mocha and the nearby Bab al-Mandab Strait marked the first time Iranian and Hezbollah leaders had taken part directly in planning and executing a Houthi operation.

He described the development as a shift in the nature of Iran’s involvement, suggesting that Tehran and Hezbollah had moved beyond providing the Houthis with weapons, training and technical assistance to playing a more direct role in battlefield decisions.

Yemeni government officials, as well as reporting by the Associated Press and Reuters, have also described Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as playing a role in directing the offensive.

The reported involvement of Hezbollah and the IRGC could give the Houthis greater operational capabilities along Yemen’s western coast, where their control of Mocha and a chain of islands has brought them closer to key shipping routes through the southern Red Sea and Bab al-Mandab Strait.

It also gives Iran another avenue for exerting pressure on Saudi Arabia and disrupting regional energy flows, according to former U.S. diplomat James Jeffrey, who served as a deputy national security adviser under President George W. Bush.

Jeffrey told MBN that Iran was using the Houthis to harass Saudi Arabia and disrupt energy markets as part of a broader effort to pressure Washington and the international community.

Hezbollah’s Role in Mocha Offensive

Houthi fighters captured Mocha in less than 48 hours in mid-September, along with a number of nearby islands, according to the source material.

Al-Bukhaiti said Iranian and Hezbollah experts had penetrated the communications systems of Yemen’s National Resistance Forces, commanded by Tareq Saleh, the nephew of former President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

The experts were able to monitor the forces’ movements and later disrupt communications between commanders and troops, al-Bukhaiti said. The breakdown in communications contributed to the withdrawal of the forces from Mocha, allowing the Houthis to take the port and move toward the Bab al-Mandab Strait within hours.

The capture of the port has since been followed by intensified fighting between Houthi forces and government troops in the Numan and Kahbub mountains in southwestern Yemen.

The mountainous area overlooks the western coast and the Bab al-Mandab Strait and controls important supply routes toward Lahj province, where Al-Anad, Yemen’s largest air base, is located, as well as Aden, the seat of the internationally recognized government since the Houthis captured Sanaa.

Yemeni government officials have said Iran has committed significant resources to fighting along the western coast.

Fahd al-Sharafi, an adviser to Yemen’s information minister, told MBN that the government had received information indicating that Iranian experts were involved in directing military operations in Al-Wazi’iyah, Al-Barh, Maqbanah and Hays, all located along or near the western-coast front.