Saudi troops in Yemen
Photo: AP
Saudi's top cleric says Iran cooperating with Yemen rebels
Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdul-Aziz al-Sheikh says Tehran's cooperation with Houthi rebels to 'spread Shiism' in Sunni Islam's heartland 'collusion for sin and aggression'
Saudi clerics have accused Yemeni Houthi rebels of working with Iran to try to spread Shiism in Sunni Islam's heartland, days before the start of the annual Muslim haj pilgrimage.
"Iranian cooperation with Houthi rebels in Yemen is a collusion for sin and aggression," Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdul-Aziz al-Sheikh said in remarks published on Monday.
Riyadh launched an assault on neighboring Yemen's Houthi rebels 12 days ago after they staged a cross-border incursion that killed two Saudi border guards.
"Houthi infiltrators entered our territories, so ... it is obvious that they should be fought since the kingdom here is defending itself," Sheikh said.
The Houthi rebels said the Saudis had been allowing Yemeni troops to launch attacks against them from the mountainous territory they seized inside Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest oil exporter.
Saudi forces have been using fighter jets and artillery to pound Houthi hideouts to enforce a 10 km (six mile) deep buffer zone inside the Yemeni side of the porous border.
'Iran destabilizes Muslim nations'
The Saudis are on particularly high alert for any security threats as Muslim pilgrims flock to the kingdom for the haj, which begins on November 25, and warned earlier this month against any attempts to politicize it.
The warning followed remarks by Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to departing pilgrims that the haj should "display the firm resolve of the Muslim nation to confront attempts that damage its unity and progress".
Iran boycotted haj for three years after 402 pilgrims, mostly Iranians, died in clashes with Saudi security forces at an anti-US and anti-Israel rally in Mecca in 1987.
Saudi Arabia, a US ally which sees itself as the guardian of Sunni Islam, has often been at odds with Shiite Iran, particularly since the 1979 Islamic revolution.
In a statement issued over the weekend, about 40 Saudi clerics said Iran "destabilizes Muslim nations by implanting, financing and arming its agents to spread" Shiism, a direct reference to Houthi rebels.
Both the Yemen government and the rebels have said that the conflict between them is not sectarian.
Yemen stepped up a military campaign against Houthi rebels in August. Fighting between Yemeni troops and Houthis, who belong to Yemen's Zaidi Shiite minority and say they suffer religious, economic and social marginalization and neglect, has flared on and off since 2004 in the northern province of Saada.
Saudi Arabia and its ally, the United States, fear al Qaeda militants are exploiting instability in Yemen, an impoverished country also grappling with separatist unrest in the south, to establish a stronger base for operations in the region.
