US President Barack Obama has sent a clear signal to the Iranian government that further arms deliveries to Houthi rebels in Yemen would be unacceptable.

“[The crisis will] not be solved by having another proxy war fought inside Yemen and we’ve indicated to the Iranians that they need to be part of the solution and not part of the problem,” the US president said in an interview with MSNBC network.

Obama said “if there are weapons delivered to factions in Yemen that could threaten navigation, that’s a problem”. The president said “we’re not sending [Iran] obscure messages, we’re sending very direct messages”.