n an interview with Al Arabiya General Manager Turki Aldakhil this week, General Ahmed Asiri, the spokesman for Arab coalition forces fighting in support of the legitimate government in Yemen, revealed the existence of an “Iranian plot to strike the security and stability of Saudi Arabia.”

This plot would have been initiated from the Yemeni border, which prompted Saudi forces to move to protect the kingdom’s territory, Asiri said, referring to the military intervention launched by Saudi Arabia and a coalition of Arab countries in 2015 codenamed Operation Decisive Storm.

The coalition are battling against Houthi militias and bolstering Yemeni government forces after a Houthi takeover of the capital Sanaa and surrounding areas in recent years.
Asiri said that Iran had aimed to employ “local militias to implement their scheme.”

The emergence of Iranians in Yemen came about through Tehran’s "support of Houthi militias with funding and weaponry in the six wars [that former President Ali Abdullah Saleh fought against them since 2004 until his overthrow in June 2011].”

Despite frequent Houthi and Iranian military disclosures and the confirmed use of Iranian weaponry, Tehran officially denies claims from Gulf states and the US that it is supporting the Houthis.

Asiri said Saudi intelligence had found that "Houthi fighters are bankrolled $100 per day" by Iranian sources.

He also said that reports of "a Hezbollah training presence in Yemen to discipline Houthis to attack Saudi Arabia and carry out suicide operations inside the kingdom" also emerged from the intelligence.Confronting the Iranian plot

Asiri, who is also an advisor to the Saudi defense minister, said that Saudi forces “did not need to wait for Yemen to become another missile base that threatens the security and safety of Saudi Arabia, as the Iranians planned to do, to turn Yemen into a military base, from which they could attack the kingdom.”

He added that the Yemeni border region would have eventually become "unstable,” and provide opportunities for “agents to infiltrate into Saudi Arabia."

Saudi Arabia has been attacked with 48 ballistic missiles since the war broke out, Asiri said, adding: "The total number of rockets fired by the militias at the kingdom or inside Yemen amount to 138."
It is believed that the missiles are manufactured in North Korea, China and former Soviet Union states. Iran takes care of the operation, preparation and maintenance of missiles, he said.Al-Arabia