Saudi Arabia and Iran have never been best of friends, each viewing the other with suspicion and, I’d suggest, some envy. That they follow very different forms of Islam is just the starting point of the tensions.

Saudi media is reporting on those tensions manifest in both the Yemen border conflict, where it sees the Houthi movement as similar to that of Hezbollah, i.e., as tools of Iranian foreign policy, and in Iran’s suggestions that Iranian hajjis politicize the Haj this year.

Writing in Asharq Alawsat, Mshari Al-Zaydi comments on what he sees as Iranian interference in Yemen:

Iranian Designs in Southern Saudi Arabia
Mshari Al-Zaydi

Iran is poised on the southern border of the Arabian Gulf countries after having swallowed Lebanon to the north through its divine party [Hezbollah] and settled in the veins of the wounded Iraqi state. What is left? Can Saudi Arabia be blamed if it takes the Huthist danger seriously and dealt with it firmly? I believe that Saudi firmness came much later than it should have.

By firmness I do not mean only military effort but I mean something that is much deeper. The literature and “manuals” of Hussein Badr-al-Din al-Huthi, the first commander of the Huthist current, show that it is part of Iran’s policy in the region. It has the same slogans, same flavor, and same approach as that of Hezbollah in Lebanon. This means appropriating part of state land, imposing control over this piece of land, creating a specific security and political fence around it, and resorting to popular slogans that titillate the sentiments of the wretched masses. And there is nothing better than attacking the United States — the mother of all evils — and Israel and, of course the agents of the United States. Nothing tops mobilizing the masses that are groaning under the burden of poverty and that are weak with ignorance. This is how Hezbollah in Lebanon was first established and this is what the Huthist current is trying to do. The recent clashes in the border region of Jabal Dukhan between the Huthist militias and the Saudi Army mark a tolling alarm bell. The problem should be examined more thoroughly and comprehensively. What can the Huthists do more? Is the Iranian operations room, intelligence services, and the intelligence organs of the Revolutionary Guard that support and manipulate the Huthist band taking the pulse of the situation?

Some people become angry when we talk about Iranian fingers in Yemen. They say that we are repeating the lies of the hostile government in Sanaa, that the Huthist current is a domestic movement, and that the members of this current are the sons of the Yemeni people and that they have just issues with the government. This is a distorted and empty discussion. No one said that the Huthists came from Madagascar and no rational person has said that they justified demands regarding the government in Sanaa. However, this is one thing and manipulating these matters in the interest of a political agitation that is bigger than mere demands is another. In Lebanon, Hezbollah too is originally from Lebanon, its human resources are the sons of Lebanon, and its geographic presence is in Lebanon. However, this is not important in the balance of political interpretation that wants to know who will gain from Hezbollah’s activities in the region. Of course, it is Iran. The same thing applies to the Huthist current in Yemen. In fact, it is an amazing cloning process of the Hezbollah model in Lebanon even in the most insignificant things. I saw a video clip on YouTube of Abdul-Malik al-Huthi addressing his masses and repeating the same chants of sacrifice and redemption as he waved his hand, raised and lowered his voice, and kept silent to give the gathering masses the chance for organized, not spontaneous, chanting. This is exactly how Hasan Nasrallah appears as he addresses the masses in Al-Dahiyah al-Junubiyah [Hezbollah stronghold in Beirut] or Al-Nabatiyah.
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The paper’s Editor-in-Chief, Tariq Alhomayed wrote yesterday that Iran’s supplying weapons to the Houthis cannot be seen favorably and that attempts to mess around with Saudi security will come at a high price:

Break the Houthi Thorn

Saudi Gazette runs a release from the official Saudi Press Agency reiterating Saudi warnings to keep the Haj apolitical. It backs up its warning with the Quranic admonition is about prayer and man’s relationship with God, not profane matters.

Qur’an forbids chanting of political slogans during Haj, warns Al-Sudais

RIYADH – It is strictly forbidden for Muslims to chant political slogans at the holy sites because this strips Haj of its sanctity and inviolability.

This is the warning from Sheikh Abdul Rahman Bin Abdul Aziz Al-Sudais, Imam and Khateeb of the Holy Haram, who is also a professor of higher Shariah studies at Umm Al-Qura University. He said people involved in such activity sow seeds of discord in Islamic society and commit profanity in the Holy Haram. He quoted from the Qur’an to support this view:
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