ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq – Iran’s foreign ministry on Monday released a statement vehemently denying any involvement in Sunday’s missile attack on Israel by Houthi rebels in Yemen.

Decrying what they call “baseless accusations,” the foreign ministry nevertheless praised the Houthis for their “courageous actions” in challenging Israel amid its ongoing military activities in Gaza, which Tehran dubbed a “genocidal campaign.”

A Houthi missile impacted near Ben Gurion International Airport in Israel on Sunday, marking the first successful strike by the Yemeni group after last weekend’s barrage failed to breach Israeli air defenses.

Iran heaped praise on the Houthis for the attack, saying that “the Yemeni actions in support of the Palestinian people are independent decisions rooted in their human and Islamic solidarity with their Palestinian brothers and sisters.”

Simultaneously, the statement strongly denied any Iranian hand in the strike, stating that “attributing these actions to the Islamic Republic of Iran constitutes a deliberate misrepresentation aimed at deflecting attention from the Zionist regime’s atrocities in occupied Palestine.”

Iran has long supported Houthi rebels in Yemen, with the militants forming a key component of the so-called ‘Axis of Resistance’ that consists of Iranian proxy groups scattered across the Middle East that work in conjunction with Tehran against regional and international adversaries.

Houthi attacks against Israeli and American targets serve as a means for Iran to pressure its foes without engaging in hostilities using Iranian armed forces that could result in a direct military confrontation.

The Quds Force of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has played a key role in financing and arming the Houthis, with its unconventional warfare specialists having established networks across the region to facilitate its proxy conflicts with adversaries.