On August 6, 2018, the Iranian news agency Fars published statements by Gen. Naser Sha'bani, a top official of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), in which he noted that the regime of the Islamic Revolution had ordered the pro-Iran Ansar Allah (Houthi) militia in Yemen to attack two Saudi tankers, and that it had carried out those orders.

Also in his statements, Gen. Sha'bani clarified that both the Shi'ite Hizbullah in Lebanon and Ansar Allah in Yemen were Iran's homeland depth and warned that they would continue to be used for Iran's purposes against its rivals in the region, particularly Saudi Arabia.

It should be emphasized that the quote about the order to attack the tankers was deleted from the Fars website after the statements were published. MEMRI has in its possession a copy of the original prior to the deletion. Below is the quote as it appeared in the last paragraph on Page 3, as highlighted below:

The text reads: "Sha'bani said: 'We told the Yemenis to attack the two Saudi tankers, and they attacked. Hizbullah in Lebanon and Ansar Allah in Yemen are our homeland depth. The enemy is so vulnerable that we can entangle it from across the border. Obviously, we are not insisting on a struggle with Saudi Arabia on the other side of the border.'"[1]

Below is the photocopy of the original four-page Fars article, as published on its website on August 6, 2018, prior to the deletion.