Houthi leader slams Saudi Arabia, hails Egypt’s positions

Leader of the Shia militias in Yemen, Abdel-Malik Al-Houthi, accused Saudi Arabia of putting pressure on Egypt to join the Arab coalition led by Riyadh, the Anadolu Agency reported yesterday.

In a recorded speech broadcasted by a TV channel loyal to the Houthis, Al-Houthi accused Saudi Arabia, the UAE, the US and Israel of committing the “worst crimes” during the past two years.

Marking the second anniversary of “Operation Decisive Storm” which has seen the Saudi-led coalition use its airpower across Yemen to detrimental effects, he said: “Egypt’s positions are honourable… Saudi has used different ways to abuse Cairo when it disobeys Riyadh… Saudi did not respect Egypt’s size and value. Whenever Egypt wanted to leave the coalition, Saudi Arabia impose sanctions on it.”

Read: Saudi resumes oil shipments to Egypt

Al-Houthi noted that Saudi banned oil exports to Egypt and visited Ethiopia and announced its support for the Renaissance Dam, which has negative impacts on Egypt.

He said that the state of emergency was announced in Yemen in order to monitor the “collaborators” and “traitors” who support the military action of the Arab-led coalition.

Recently, sources reported that Saudi resumed sending oil to Egypt, and at the same time, other reports revealed that Egypt sent weapons to the Houthis, Anadolu said.

According to the news agency, an Egyptian official said: “Egypt handed over 12 developed gunboats to the Houthis during the past two months.”

The Yemeni official said that the Egyptian navy facilitates weapon entry to the Houthis and their allies, adding that the Houthis and the Egyptian intelligence are in contact.

In addition, Anadolu said that Saudi Arabia believes Egypt had smuggled Chinese Scud missiles to the Houthis.