The infiltration of Saudi territory over the last week was an attempt to gain access to coastal areas to which arms and ammunition arrive on the Yemeni side of the border, and to reach the weapons markets open to the public in villages lying right on the border, security sources said. “They took refuge in Jabal Al-Dokhan to get closer to the sea where they get supplies from countries that support them,” retired Saudi Army Gen. Yahya Al-Zayidi said. Al-Zayidi described the Huthis as “terrorists” who were demanding an “illegitimate” separate state. “The hub of the Huthis was formed the same way as other terrorist hubs have been formed in various countries, by implanted mercenary ideas and goals in the minds of its members,” Al-Zayidi said. “Their demands for a separate state are illegitimate and out of the question given that they are part of the Yemeni state and have representation in Parliament. Their campaign is pointless,” he said. “Fighting the state and rising up against the regime, engaging in destructive acts, smuggling weapons and drugs into neighboring countries, including the Kingdom that has long and open southern borders, are their ways of trying to achieve their illegitimate goals,” he said. “They commit murder just like any other terrorist organization, and the Kingdom has taken the crucial decision to defend its borders. They are now being pressured from both sides and they cannot escape,” he said. Al-Zayidi said that the infiltrators also sought to claim that they were being fought by the Kingdom, but “Saudi Arabia doesn't fight with anybody that doesn't attack its lands”. “The Huthis don't value the life of Yemenis and have put themselves in this position over something which could have been resolved peacefully within their country,” he said. “They want to create their own ‘small state' on the Saudi-Yemeni border, and drag the Kingdom into Yemen's internal war,” according to retired army general and member of the Shoura Council Saleh Bin Faris Al-Zahrani. Al-Zahrani said that the infiltrators had taken to the mountains as “refuge”. “They were seeking protection using the geography of the area, which only permits them the use of light weapons,” Al
