World Cup
Several leaders of the Houthi rebels first congratulated the Saudi team, before taking flight with their comments.
Among the thousands of tweets sent to celebrate Saudi Arabia’s surprise 2-1 victory over Argentina at the World Cup on Tuesday, there were some sources.
“Congratulations on the victory of the Saudi team over their Argentine team. This victory put Arab football back on the map,” tweeted Dhaifallah al-Shami, a member of the political bureau of Yemen’s Houthi movement.
Why unexpected?
The Houthis have been waging an active war against Saudi Arabia since 2015, with the latter carrying out thousands of airstrikes against the Houthis’ enemy, the Yemeni government.
In fact, the Houthis have described Saudi Arabia as the “devil’s horn. “
So it’s no surprise that al-Shami temporarily deleted his tweet.
Abdulqader al-Mortada, the Houthi chairman of the National Committee for Prisoners’ Affairs, deleted his tweet congratulating Saudi Arabia. He tweeted “a thousand congratulations” to the Saudi team for their victory in a post later deleted.
Al-Mortada later explained that his tweet was a message of brotherhood to the rest of the people of “Hejaz and Najd,” employing calls from two well-known regions of Saudi Arabia, rather than the call from the country itself.
“The wounds of our other people in the House of Saud are deep. . . I offer my sincerest apologies,” al-Mortada added.
Early messages from Houthi members reflect some help for the Saudi team at the World Cup, which has crossed Yemen’s political divide.
Some Yemenis even took to the streets to celebrate celebrations and into the streets.
Videos of the celebrations spread widely on social media, with one Yemeni user saying the Saudi victory had “warmed our hearts and raised the heads of the Arabs [made us proud], making Yemenis satisfied everywhere, as if it were the Yemeni national team. “.
– المتفائل7 (@ahmddrhm3) November 22, 2022
Some anti-Houthi Yemenis shared the videos, with one saying, “celebrations in Felix [Yemen], even after airstrikes have exhausted them. “
سأضع تحت هذه التغريدات عدة مقاطع فيديو تبيّن الفرحة بفوز منتخبنا.
– تركي الشلهوب (@TurkiShalhoub) November 22, 2022
Yemen has been mired in clashes since 2014, when the Iranian-allied Houthi movement seized much of the country’s north and added the capital, Sanaa, as the government fled. In March 2015, a coalition of Arab countries led by Saudi Arabia intervened in the war with the aim of restoring government.
The fighting devastated the country, created one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises and, over the years, morphed into a regional proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran. More than 150,000 people were killed, bringing the total to 14,500 civilians.
For some Yemenis, this should simply be ignored.
Mohammad Abdelwasi al-Wajeeh, a TV presenter for the Houthi Al Masirah channel, said he was angry with Yemenis over Saudi Arabia.
“The one who said that football is a comfortable war through which Westerners pass what they need to billions of people. . . he is right,” al-Wajeeh said.
“I was very angry when most congratulated the Saudi team because they are Arabs. . . Everyone can go to hell. “
Another Houthi er on Twitter said he “has not celebrated and will not celebrate the Saudi national team’s victory over Argentina,” before referring to members of the Saudi national team for the country’s military.