In January 2012, Saudi Arabia’s then-defence minister, Salman bin Abdulaziz, now the kingdom’s ruler, signed a secret cable outlining a plan to manufacture a sectarian split in northern Yemen to weaken the Houthi movement. The cable, marked ‘Extremely Secret, Very Urgent’, was part of a trove of leaked Saudi Arabian government documents obtained by Drop Site News. The plan, directed by King Salman, aimed to arm ultra-conservative Salafi Sunni tribes and drive a wedge between the Houthis and the wider Zaydi Shia community. The goal was to create a sectarian divide without appearing to be involved, as King Salman believed that if the fighting seemed to be a Sunni versus Shia war, Yemen’s Zaydi Shia majority would rally behind the Houthis.
The leaked documents, dated between 2010 and 2012, reveal a complex web of payments and strategies. A March 2010 cable signed by King Abdullah released SAR 50 million to arm and fund tribes fighting the Houthis, while a May 2012 Interior Ministry cable recorded a further SAR 5 million routed to front lines in the north. The documents also claim that former Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh was secretly funding the Houthis as a counterweight to the Salafis. The plan ultimately failed, with the Houthis overrunning the Salafi seminary town of Dammaj in 2014 and seizing the capital, Sana’a, by September that year.
The conflict escalated into a full-blown war in March 2015, when a Saudi-led coalition, backed by US military support, launched a bombing campaign on northern Yemen. Despite King Salman’s initial insistence on avoiding a sectarian frame, the kingdom ultimately leaned on sectarianism to rally Sunni fighters. The eight-year campaign resulted in over 25,000 strikes and significant loss of life.
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📰 Source: Siasat Gulf