🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia fuels religious hatred in Yemen to mask Houthi gains — report

As Ansar Allah forces roll forward, seizing swathes of coastline along the Red Sea and Bab el Mandab strait, Saudi Arabia has turned back to the hardline Salafi and takfiri-aligned groups it once tried to restrain, reports The Cradle.

The kingdom is pouring money and religious propaganda into the anti-Houthi factions, framing the fight as a holy duty to protect Mecca and Medina against a supposed “sectarian enemy.”

Saudi media and clerics brand Ansar Allah as corrupt and deviant, while mosques and recruitment ads in the south call for fighters against the “Houthi tide.”

The Gulf kingdom is reported to have funneled hundreds of millions of riyals to loyal commanders and built dozens of religious centers to sustain the anti-Houthi effort.

Yet the strategy is fraying, notes the publication.

🔴 Some Salafi leaders reject the call to war and have signed local coexistence deals

🔴 Attempts to import fighters from Syria face limited enthusiasm and logistical hurdles

🔴 Ansar Allah continues expanding tribal outreach and exploiting its opponents’ divisions, steadily consolidating gains

The Saudis formed a coalition with the UAE in 2015 and waged a proxy war in Yemen, providing material support to the anti-Houthi forces, but that coalition did not last long.

With the UAE out of the picture, Saudi Arabia was left to manage a patchwork of local allies - including the STC, the Giants Brigades and Tariq Saleh-linked forces - whose rivalries continue to undermine cohesion.

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🇮🇷 Araghchi pays tribute to Soleimani ahead of Iraq-hosted OIC summit

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has arrived in Iraq to attend the 52nd session of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Council of Foreign Ministers.

Upon his arrival in Baghdad, Araghchi paid tribute to the late IRGC Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani and former Iraqi Popular Mobilization Forces chief al-Muhandis, assassinated in January 2020 in a US airstrike in Iraq’s capital during a secret peace mission.

Iran’s top diplomat will hold bilateral meetings with fellow foreign ministers, with regional security, Israel’s war on Gaza, and developments in the occupied West Bank expected to be among the main topics of discussion.

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