Discussion on Yemen and Houthi Expansion

There was an incident that happened to me

concerning this matter.

I was working at the World Assembly of Muslim Youth

in the Da'wah and Culture Department, and I was its head.

A Saudi intelligence officer called me.

I can mention his name now, but I don't want him to be harmed.

He said he wanted to meet with me

about a matter, so I welcomed him.

What year was this?

Or what period, which period?

I mean—

The early nineties?

No, maybe 2000 and…

During the Arab Spring? Around September?

No, before the Arab Spring.

Between September and the Arab Spring.

I think so. Maybe 2009, 2008,

something like that. Anyway, he came to me and said, uh…

I'm so-and-so, son of so-and-so, and I attended with you as a young man at a center,

a camp, that sort of thing. A good young man, a man of fine character.

He said, "We have a problem

in Yemen. The—Houthis,

the Houthi schools have begun to expand and have taken hold of the

southern border.

Was this before the 2009 clash?

Before.

Before the first counteroffensive against them.

Yes, before.

Yes.

So, what do you think? I said, "Well, I have an opinion. Let me tell you something."

First, Saudi Arabia must abandon the idea of fighting

Al-Islah.

Second, it must abandon the method

of bribes it gives to tribal sheikhs

and notables—the dignitaries in these areas, because

they take them and go with them to

the Sayyid in,

in Houth.

I mentioned three or four points, which I have now forgotten.

He said, "As for the first, I cannot tell you anything about it."

It is a firm policy.

That is settled. As for the second, yes, there is

a study to reconsider this matter.

Uh, yes, I mentioned the th—the third point, that you

support the schools that

uh, belong to Al-Islah or to any Islamic association there

that does not espouse Shiite ideology.

He said, "That is what we want from you."

I said, "All right, at that time we were in Ramadan."

I called, I called and found one of the notables from

Saada and Hajjah, those areas.

I told him, "I found someone for you to meet and arrange with you

the practical plan that—the plan you want to carry out,

for God's sake first, not in service of the regime or

anything of that sort, but..."

In response to this Shiite sectarian expansion that—

and taking advantage of the opportunity that—

Yes.

Anyway, he met with the man several times. Then the man told me.

He said, "We had meetings, drew up plans and programs, we drew up

budgets, we laid out... we laid out things and areas, and so on."

He said, "Then he took them and never brought me anything.

Not a single riyal.

Nothing."

Yes.

This is a true story I'm telling, one that happened before my eyes

and in my presence.