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Saudi Arabia damaging image of Islam, Muslims: Houthi leader

Tuesday, 20 September 2016 4:14 PM [ Last Update: Tuesday, 20 September 2016 4:14 PM ]

A screengrab of Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, leader of Yemen’s Houthi Ansarullah movement, delivering a televised speech on September 20, 2016.

The leader of Yemen’s Houthi Ansarullah movement has accused Saudi Arabia of seeking to tarnish the image of Islam and its followers, saying that the regime in Riyadh is a puppet of the US and Israel.

Abdul-Malik al-Houthi said on Tuesday that Saudi Arabia has targeted the national unity, Islamic brotherhood, stability and the identity of Muslims in all Islamic countries, including Egypt, Algeria and Yemen.

Saudi Arabia is like cholera, which has plagued Muslim countries, Houthi further noted, adding that the kingdom’s servility has even surprised Washington and Tel Aviv.

He also denounced the deadly Saudi aggression on Yemen and described the US as the mastermind of the offensive.

Saudi Arabia has been incessantly pounding Yemen since March 2015, with the UN putting the toll at 10,000. The offensive was launched to crush the Houthi Ansarullah movement and its allies and reinstate the resigned president, Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi.

The Houthis took state matters in their own hands after the resignation and escape of Hadi, which threw Yemen into a state of uncertainty and threatened a total security breakdown there.

According to a recent survey, conducted by the Yemen Data Project, a group of academics and human rights activists, Saudi airstrikes hit 3,158 non-military sites between March 2015 and the end of August this year.

People gather at a building destroyed by Saudi airstrikes in Amran, Yemen, September 8, 2016. (Photo by Reuters)

Elsewhere in his remarks, the Houthi leader stressed that the Yemeni citizens will resist an economic blockade imposed by Saudi Arabia and its mercenaries, calling them thieves who are after looting the resources and wealth of Yemen.

He further denounced a ban on the country’s central bank and called for a campaign in support of the financial institution.

The impoverished nation of Yemen is under a de facto blockade of the Al Saud kingdom, which is hampering shipment of food, medicine and other basic needs.

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