MISERY MOUNTS: Tents have been erected in Jazan to house those evacuated after the Yemeni rebel attack. (AN photo)

JEDDAH: Saudi political analysts have denounced the Houthi rebel attack on the Kingdom’s border post and said it was an apparent move to drag the Kingdom into the internal conflict in Yemen.

They also said Iran was using the Houthi rebels to create trouble inside Saudi Arabia. They suggested Tehran was arming the rebels.

“It seems that the Houthis are receiving support from Iran, especially because of the use of arms,” Abdul Rahman Al-Rashid, general manager of Al Arabiya news channel, told Arab News.

Asked whether the attack had any link with Tehran’s recent move to politicize Haj, Rashid said: “I don’t think so.” However, he pointed out that Tehran always focused on Haj whenever relations with the Kingdom were tense.

He said Iran would do everything possible to use other countries as scapegoats for its problems.

Al-Rashid described the Houthis as an organized group that follow radical methods. “The Houthis have been engaging in long military battles like the ones in Iraq and Lebanon,” he added.

He said the region has been divided into two camps with Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan on one side and Iran, Syria and Hezbollah on the other.

But Salim Al-Ghamdi, political editor of Al-Riyadh Arabic daily, claimed Saudi Arabia maintained good relations with Damascus. “Iran being a non-Arab country will not be able to influence inter-Arab ties,” he added.

Al-Ghamdi said the Houthi attack would not affect the strong Saudi-Yemen relations. “The Communists had failed to weaken these relations and I am sure that Iran, with the help of this small group, will not be successful in creating conflict between Saudi Arabia and Yemen.”

He said the Houthis moved to the north in order to open a new front after they found themselves in a difficult situation in the south, surrounded by the Yemeni government forces.

Professor Wahid Hashim of King Abdulaziz University, justified Saudi Arabia’s military action against the Houthis. “The Kingdom has every right to give an equal response,” he added. He said Iran supported the Houthis to open a new front against the Kingdom, adding that Tehran was using the media to attack the Kingdom. Hashim said Iran was trying to establish a Shiite state in the north of Yemen by supporting the rebels.