Outrage over Houthi TV station ‘allowed a base in London for 12 years’

A Houthi-controlled TV station appears to have had a base in the UK for 12 years, Metro can reveal.

Al-Masirah TV has operated an apparent ‘shell company’ in London since 2014, according to Companies House documents.

The channel is the main propaganda network for the Houthi rebels who struck King Khalid International Airport last week, killing 12 and injuring 300.

The revelations have sparked fears from leading national security voices, including Priti Patel MP and Iain Duncan Smith MP, that Britain has exposed itself to Iranian influence via the station’s London base.

Al-Masirah, headquartered in Beirut, Lebanon, has been accused of spreading pro-Iran disinformation by the US government, who took down the news site in 2021.

Metro has uncovered that the TV station appears to have operated a company in the UK.

Companies House, which handles all limited companies in the UK, shows that ‘Almasirah Network Limited’ was first registered in September 2014, and described their business as ‘Television programming and broadcasting activities.’

One of the company’s directors since September 2014 is listed as Ammar Al-Hamzy.

This appears to be an alternative spelling of Ammar Al-Hamzi, who is the current director general of Al-Masirah TV.

Al-Hamzi has described the TV station’s work as exposing the ‘heinous crimes’ and ‘arrogant aggression headed by the US, Israel and Britain’.

Another company director of the UK hub, which changed its name to ‘Almassira TV channel’ in 2024, is listed as Embrahim Mohammed Al-Dailami on Companies House.

This appears to be an alternative spelling of Ibrahim Al-Dailami, who previously served as director general of Al-Masirah and is the current Houthi Ambassador to Iran.

Al-Dailami has publicly hit out at the UK’s ambassador to Yemen, accusing him of having ‘political Alzheimer’s, and has made threats against Western powers intervening in Yemen.

A financial accountant told Metro the Al-Masirah base in the UK is ‘clearly a shell company’.

Ben Crowne said: ‘It has no material assets (£200), and has filed 10 years of dormant accounts.

‘It is also overdue for its recent filings, and its directors have not completed the Companies House identity verification.’

Despite this, experts have warned that the presence of Al-Masirah in the UK is ‘problematic for UK national security’.

Johnathan Hacketit, a former American intelligence operator and expert in Iran’s covert operations, told Metro that ‘dormant media outlets have historically been exploited by malign foreign intelligence entities’.

He continued: ‘Iran’s state-controlled media enterprise uses UK-based media outlets like Al Masirah to obfuscate the originators of propaganda and extremist viewpoints intended to reach vulnerable populations in the UK.’

Hackett added: ‘The Iranian government uses these types of media outlets, especially dormant ones, to keep potential access points on ice for long periods of time, allowing them to reactivate when needed inside the UK with little notice or scrutiny.’

The TV station is now overdue on its statutory filings and is due to be struck off and dissolved unless the necessary documents are filed.

However, this has not stopped national security campaigners reacting in anger to the channel having a route to the UK for more than a decade.

Former Home Secretary Priti Patel told Metro: ‘Houthi terrorists are sponsored by the murderous regime in Tehran. They are responsible for killing civilians, targeting shipping and are intent on damaging the interests of Britain and our allies.

‘Any links and operations taking place in Britain must be fully investigated, and the full force of the law used to stop them.’

Former Conservative Party leader Iain Duncan Smith said the revelations were ‘a shocker’.

He added: ‘Why are we allowing these people to exist in the UK? What the hell are we doing?

‘We are so wide open right now. We know the Houthis have been pumping out rubbish in the UK and yet we still turn a blind eye to it.’

A Houthi airstrike on King Khalid International Airport was condemned as a ‘dangerous escalation’ by Defence Secretary Wes Streeting after 12 people died and more than 300 were left injured.

Footage showed a missile striking a Saudia Airlines jet parked at the terminal, destroying it in a cloud of black smoke.

The US president said on Saturday he was deciding whether to join Saudi airstrikes against the Houthi rebels.

Wes Streeting called the Riyadh Airport attack ‘contemptible’.

He told Sky News: ‘What we’ve seen overnight is a dangerous escalation and I’m afraid an increasing pattern of behaviour from the Houthis that’s targeting civilian sites in Saudi Arabia.

He continued: ‘This is completely contemptible action and it’s one of the reasons why the UK is providing support to Saudi Arabia in the form of air defences, but also air-to-air refuelling.

‘We want to see an end to this conflict. It cannot be right that the Houthis are attacking civilian targets in this way.’

A key ally of the regime in Tehran, the Houthi rebels had until recently stayed on the sidelines of the US-Iran war, although the group has been fighting with Saudi Arabia since the gulf petrostate intervened in Yemen on behalf of its internationally-recognised government in 2015.

Al-Masirah was not contactable for comment.

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

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