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Ankara:Iran is sending advanced weapons and military advisers to Yemen, stepping up support for its Shiite ally in a civil war whose outcome could sway the balance of power in the Middle East, regional and Western sources say.

Iran's enemy Saudi Arabia is leading a nine-country Sunni Arabcoalition supported by the US,against the Houthis in the impoverished state on the tip of the Arabian peninsula.

Sources with knowledge of the military movements, who declined to be identified, said that in recent months Iran has taken a greater role in the two-year-old conflict by stepping up arms supplies and other support to the Houthimovement. This mirrors the strategy it has used to support its Lebanese ally Hezbollah in Syria.

A senior Iranian official said Major General Qassem Soleimani, commander of the Qods Force - the external arm of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps - met top IRGC officials in Tehran last month to look at ways to "empower" the Houthis.

"At this meeting, they agreed to increase the amount of help, through training, arms and financial support," the official said.

"Yemen is where the real proxy war is going on and winning the battle in Yemen will help define the balance of power in the Middle East."

Iran rejects accusations from Saudi Arabia that it is giving financial and military support to the Houthis, blaming the deepening crisis on the Saudi government.

But Iran's actions in Yemen seem to reflect the growing influence of hardliners in Tehran, keen to pre-empt a tougher policy towards Iran signalled by US President Donald Trump.

Brigadier General Ahmed Asseri, spokesman for the Arab coalition fighting the Houthis, said: "We don't lack information or evidence that the Iranians, by various means, are smuggling weapons into the area.

"We observe that the Kornet anti-tank weapon is on the ground, whereas before it wasn't in the arsenal of the Yemeni army or of the Houthis. It came later."

A Houthi leader said coalition accusations that Iran was smuggling weapons into Yemen were an attempt to cover up Saudi Arabia's failure to prevail in an intractable war in which at least 10,000 people have been killed and the country is on the brink of famine.

"The Saudis don't want to admit their failings so they are searching for false justifications ... after two years of the aggression that the United States and Britain are involved in," the Houthi leader, who declined to be named, said.

Iran's activities have alarmed Sunni Muslim countries in the Middle East, with one senior official from a neighbouring country saying: "We want Iran to stop exporting Shiism in the region, whether in Yemen or elsewhere".

Saudi Arabia intervened in Yemen's civil war in 2015 to back President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi after he was ousted from the capital Sanaa by the Houthis. Government forces in the south and east hold most of Yemen's territory, while the Houthis control most population centres in the north-west, including Sanaa.

A former senior Iranian security official said Iran's hardline rulers planned to empower Houthi militia in Yemen to "strengthen their hand in the region".

"They are planning to create a Hezbollah-like militia in Yemen. To confront Riyadh's hostile policies ... Iran needs to use all its cards," the former official said.

A Western diplomat in the Middle East agreed: "Iran has long been trying to cultivate portions of the Houthi militias as a disruptive force in Yemen.

"This is not to say that the Houthis are Hezbollah, but they do not need to be to achieve Iran's goals, which is to encircle the Saudis, expand its influence and power projection in the region and develop levers of unconventional pressure."

A spokeswoman for Britain's Foreign Office said it was "concerned by Iranian support to the Houthis, including reports that Iran has transferred weapons to Yemen which would be contrary to a UN Security Council Resolution 2216 and the Security Council's embargo on the export of weapons by Iran".

Sources say Iran is also using ships to deliver supplies to Yemen either directly or via Somalia, bypassing coalition efforts to intercept shipments.

Western sources say once the ships arrive in the region, the cargoes are transferred to small fishing boats, which are hard to spot because they are so common in these waters.

The coalition ejected al Qaeda from the area last year, but still cannot prevent the smuggling of weapons and people, according to sources familiar with the waters.

The Arab coalition's General Asseri acknowledged the difficulties of policing 2700 kilometres of coastline around Yemen.

"You cannot observe this length of coast even if you bring in all the navies of the world," he said. "If we stop movement of those small boats, this will affect fishing by normal people."

From September 2015 until March 2016, the French and Australian navies frequently intercepted weapons which officials said were most likely bound for the Houthis.

A USdefence official said Iranian weapons smuggling to the Houthis had continued apace since March last year, when the seizures stopped. The equipment included long-range ballistic missiles capable of reaching deep into Saudi Arabia.

Reuters

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War in Yemen: Iran steps up support for Houthis - The Sydney Morning Herald