U.S. Ambassador Huckabee Blames Tehran for Houthi Strikes on Saudi Arabia as Trump Withholds Commitment

Mike Huckabee, the U.S. ambassador to Israel, told Newsmax that the Islamic Republic is responsible for recent Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia, and that Tehran’s money and training are what make those strikes possible. The same news cycle carried a less certain message from the White House. Asked whether American forces would come to the kingdom’s defense, President Donald Trump gave no commitment and said only, “you’ll see what happens,” according to Tasnim ^[1].

Huckabee’s argument was direct. “Why do the Houthis have the ability to do such things? Because the Islamic Republic pays them, empowers them and trains them,” he said, as quoted by Iran International ^[2]. He added that containing the Iranian government was the only way to stop part of the attacks carried out through proxies, naming the Houthis, Hamas and Hezbollah. He also said Iran was in its weakest position since 1979, pointing to U.S. military strikes and what he described as an intensifying economic pressure campaign under Trump ^[2].

The charge that Iran arms and funds the Houthis is not new. Washington designated the Houthis a Foreign Terrorist Organization in 2025, and United Nations panel reports have previously documented Iranian-made components in Houthi weaponry. Huckabee’s interview, as reported, offered no new evidence for the specific Saudi attacks. Hamas and Hezbollah are both designated terrorist organizations, and Huckabee’s list reflects Washington’s framing of Iran’s network as a single system of proxy pressure rather than separate local conflicts.

Trump’s remarks drew sharply different treatment in Iranian state media. Tasnim reported him saying that the Saudis are capable of defending themselves, and Shahab quoted him calling the attacks against Saudi Arabia “terrible” ^[1][3]. Read together, the two statements leave Riyadh without a clear American guarantee at the moment Houthi fire is reaching Saudi airports and civilian infrastructure. United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned the strikes on Saudi civilian infrastructure as a violation of international law that must stop immediately ^[3].

The strategic logic is what matters here. Tehran has long used its proxies to raise the cost of any Western or Israeli action without crossing into direct war with the United States. A Houthi campaign that hits Saudi airports makes Riyadh, not Washington, the first party to absorb the pain, and it tests the 2023 rapprochement that restored Saudi-Iranian diplomatic ties under Chinese mediation. The question for the regime’s survival calculus is whether pressure on Riyadh buys Tehran leverage in its standoff with Washington, or whether it pushes Saudi Arabia closer to the American security umbrella it has been hedging against.

Huckabee’s economic argument points to a cost that falls elsewhere. Sanctions and currency pressure bite hardest on Iranian households, while the leadership has continued to fund external militias ahead of domestic needs. Iranians who have protested the system since the 2022 uprising have no say in those choices, and the regime’s priorities are the clearest evidence of what it values.

For regional security, the immediate indicators are whether the Houthis expand strikes to Kuwaiti and Emirati airports, as some reports have warned, and whether Washington backs its rhetoric with operational steps. A Saudi decision to retaliate directly would end the restraint that has held since the Beijing-brokered deal, and a U.S. that remains uncommitted would leave Riyadh to decide alone how much of the Iranian network it can afford to confront.