Saudi victory over Argentina in World Cup arouses Houthi hatred
The Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Houthi coup government in Yemen, Hussein Al-Ezzi, congratulated the Saudi national team after its victory on Tuesday, November 22, over its Argentine counterpart in the first round of the FIFA World Cup tournament in Qatar, a victory that was celebrated by Arab activists from different countries on social media and joined by the Houthi leaders, which observers attributed to the improvement of the ongoing negotiations between the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Houthi militia regarding the re-extension of the ceasefire after its expiration on October 2.
Football blow
The Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Houthi coup government in Yemen, Hussein Al-Ezzi, was not the only prominent Houthi leader to congratulate the Saudi team on the victory, as Houthi Information Minister Daifallah al-Shami also tweeted to congratulate the Saudi team, saying, “Congratulations on the Saudi national team's victory over the Argentine national team. This victory has restored respect for Arab football.”
A few minutes later, several Houthi leaders rushed to congratulate the Saudi national team, but many of them deleted their tweets, which were met with a wave of criticism and reprimand by some of the senior leaders of the militia, who even described them as “traitors, agents and villains.”
Houthi leader Youssef al-Fishi, who had previously strongly supported the Iranian national team two days prior, responded to his peers' positive tweets about Saudi Arabia, saying that they “suffer from a disorder of principles.”
This tweet was supported by some Houthi elements, including the group's spokesman, Mohammed Abdul-Salam, and his deputy, Abdul Malik Al-Ajri. They even called on some well-wishers to issue an apology for what they did.
Iranian group
The Houthis’ behavior prompted Yemeni activists to launch a campaign on social media to ridicule what the group's leaders had done after forcing them to delete congratulatory tweets.
Activists emphasized that the Houthis' deletion of the congratulatory tweets undoubtedly confirms that this militia is not Arab and does not belong to Arabism in any way, but rather is a “pure Iranian group”. Therefore, some did not rule out that the mullah regime was the one who had instructed the Houthis to reprimand their leaders and force them to delete their congratulations, especially after the Iranian national team received a resounding loss on November 21 against its English counterpart, by six goals to two, which prompted the Wali al-Faqih regime to attribute this heavy loss to the protests that the country has been witnessing for more than two months due to the Iranian morality police killing 20-year-old girl Mahsa Amini.
Although the Yemenis in the liberated governorates went out in rallies to celebrate the victory of the Saudi team, especially in the governorates of Ma'rib, Taiz and Mocha, their counterparts in the governorates under the control of the Houthi militia could not do this, despite some of them supporting the Saudi team’s achievement, which was described as a “deserved achievement”, because they were not subjected to repression by the militants of the Iran-backed group.
