The Houthis, backed by the Iranian regime, have long been accused of carrying out a wide range of human rights violations which includes shelling civilian areas, executing rivals and objectors, using child soldiers, and have been filmed performing Nazi salutes en masse at rallies. The London-based Arabic newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat alleged that the Houthis have revived slavery in Yemen.
Addressing the conference, in a room adorned with large images of figures such as Ayatollah Khomeini of Iran, Hezbollah’s Hassan Nasrallah and Ismail Haniyeh, Wallace said Yemen has been “amazing”.
“Over 90 per cent of terrorism these days is carried out by western states and their allies,” Wallace told the room full of Houthis and their supporters.
Mick Wallace meets Houthi spokesman Yahya Saree during a 10-day trip to Yemen[Missing Credit]
He also said Israel has “only understood brute force and violence” since its creation. “For many, many years you have stood up against Western imperialism. Because you oppose Western empire, then they call you a terrorist,” he said, despite the fact that Yemen’s neighbours – Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the UAE – have branded the Houthis a terrorist organisation as well as the US.
Daly repeated the charge in a podcast episode released by the pair on Monday, claiming the West is trying to “literally bomb a country for trying to uphold international law”. While in Yemen for 10 days, Wallace posted numerous pictures of himself shaking hands with Houthi and Yemeni leadership, saying it was a “great privilege” to meet them.
Daly, meanwhile, said on the same trip that the whole world can “learn” from Yemen and that she will try to “emulate” the country’s actions in the West.
Interviewed while wearing a hijab at a Houthi Quds Day rally, she said: “I just want to say thank you Yemen for everything you have sacrificed and for the leadership you have shown all over the world. We will try to emulate your actions in our countries and spread the word for real solidarity for Palestine and standing up against the Zionist settler colonial regime of Israel.”
At another event, she proclaimed Yemen to be the “heart of resistance” against “American terrorism”.
Daly condemned the 'Zionist settler colonial regime' in an interview with Yemeni media[Missing Credit]
“And our message is clear,” she went on, “you will not prevail. You can send you bombs, you can enable your Zionist puppets, but your actions are a sign of your weakness, not of your strength.”
But it’s not the first time the pair have been accused of cosying up to Islamist militant groups.
In 2021, Irish MEP Malcolm Byrne dubbed the duo an “embarrassment to Ireland” after they visited a Hashed al-Shaabi – the Popular Mobilisation Forces – base in Iraq, an Iranian-backed paramilitary group.
During their visit to the base, they criticised American foreign policy in the region and their interviews were used on the group’s official media channels as promotional material.
Wearing a black burka, Daly praised the group – which is accused of carrying out war crimes, massacring civilians and organising extrajudicial killings, forced disappearances, abductions and anti-Sunni ethnic cleansing campaigns – for “upholding international law” unlike the “United States and many other countries”.
Clare Daly, left in a burka and sunglasses, and Mick Wallace, right, touring Iraq[Missing Credit]
Close political allies for over a decade, Wallace was an independent TD (Irish parliament member) for Wexford from 2011, while Daly was elected as a Socialist Party TD the same year. They both became members of the European Parliament in 2019 as part of the Irish far-left political alliance Independents 4 Change, though neither were re-elected in the 2024 European elections.
Whilst MEPs, Wallace and Daly abstained on a vote to grant Ukraine financial assistance and voted against a resolution to label Russia a state sponsor of terrorism. They among 13 MEPs – out of 700 in the European Parliament – to reject a resolution that condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Defending their decision, they claimed the EU was “manipulating public anger to accelerate militarisation”.
[Missing Credit]Clare Daly and Mick Wallce with Mohammed Meftah, first deputy prime minister of Yemen (centre)
According to a report conducted by the think tank VoteWatch Europe, Wallace and Daly were two of the least critical MEPs of Russia. It found that they had only an average of 16.7 per cent level of criticism of Russia and consistently voted against resolutions that were critical of the country while denouncing Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny, according to Irish public broadcaster RTE.
The pair have been interviewed numerous times by anti-Western media outlets, according to the Irish Times. The paper found that they have been featured in more Chinese-language news articles than any other Irish people.
Wallace, a prolific figure in the Chinese state-controlled press, attracted controversy internationally for saying the country takes “better care” of its people than European states, that there was no “solid evidence” of Uyghur Muslim detention camps and that Taiwan was part of China. He also said that Nato was a “war machine” bent on provoking conflict.
Mick Wallace speaks to a crowd of Yemeni men (Image: X)[Missing Credit]
Wallace and Daly also challenged the findings of a report by the body charged with investigating chemical attacks used by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on his own people. They accused the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) of wrongly blaming the Assad regime, and were accused by fellow Irish MEP Barry Andrews of spreading a conspiracy theory that the attack was staged by the Syrian Civil Defence known as the White Helmets. Wallace claimed the White Helmets were being paid by the US and UK to enact regime change in Syria, and opposed sanctions against the Syrian government and proposed the removal of the sanctions currently in place.
Beyond politics, Wallace also has a history of financial controversies. In 2011, he pleaded guilty to five charges of withholding the pension contributions of employees working for his property development company and, in 2012, made a seven-figure settlement for under paying VAT.
On the 2011 conviction, Wallace said the case had arisen as a result of a "discrepancy" and that he had paid all of the money due.
After the Socialist Party condemned Wallace for tax evasion, Daly left the party. The Irish Independent called Wallace a “bankrupt developer” and “tax dodger”.
Wallace and Daly did not respond to requests for comment.
Wallace (centre-left) next to Jackson Hinkle to his left, in a Houthi-hosted Palestine solidarity conference in Yemen. Pictures of Hezbollah and Iranian leadership adorn the walls behind them[Missing Credit]
