Post from multiple Indian users on social media platform X on Friday shared a video clip of a Houthi official, claiming that it showed him threatening Pakistan for allegedly sending troops to the Saudi–Yemen border amid the signing of a mutual defence deal with the kingdom. However, the video is old and does not show the Houthi official talking about Pakistan.
Pakistan and Saudi Arabia signed a “Strategic Mutual Defence Agreement” in Riyadh on Sept 16, pledging that any attack on either nation would be treated as an act of aggression against both.
A statement from the PM’s office announcing the signing of the pact read: “This agreement, which reflects the shared commitment of both nations to enhance their security and to achieve security and peace in the region and the world, aims to develop aspects of defence cooperation between the two countries and strengthen joint deterrence against any aggression.”
A known Indian propaganda account shared the picture of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman on X today, along with a video clip of a Houthi official.
The caption of the post said: “Breaking: Tensions escalate after Pakistan sends 25,000 troops to the Saudi–Yemen border under a new defence pact. Houthi fighters issued a stark threat, saying they will ‘turn the Yemen–Saudi border into a graveyard for Pakistani soldiers’, raising fears of wider confrontation.”
The video attached to the post did not have any subtitles or a translation of what the person was saying. It also did not mention the identity of the person in the video clip.
The post gained over 359,000 views.
The video with the same claim was shared by multiple other users on X as can be seen here, here, here and here.
A fact-check was initiated to determine the veracity of the claim due to its high virality and keen public interest in the defence agreement signed between Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.
A keyword search to corroborate the alleged developments yielded no news reports from credible mainstream international, Saudi, Yemeni or domestic media outlets about either Pakistan sending 25,000 troops to the Saudi-Yemen border or the Houthis threatening Pakistan for any such move.
To corroborate what was actually being said in the video, its content was translated into English through AI transcription tool Turboscribe, which showed that the Houthi official did not say anything about threatening Pakistan.
Translating the video through ChatGPT and Google Translate also yielded the following transcription:
“For us, Gaza is a red line — a red line. Our causes, our sanctities, and our Islam are a red line, and we do not compromise on them. In his last speech, Sayyid [the leader] said: There are no red lines in front of the Yemeni people. No red lines. If you have red lines, we have none in front of us. We will target things the enemy has never thought of, never imagined, and not even the Yemeni people or the peoples of the [Muslim] nation have imagined. And we will reach, by God’s permission and with His power, the fifth and sixth stages. If the enemy’s aggression continues against Gaza, there will be positions and actions that not even the Yemeni spirit could have imagined.”
A reverse image search yielded a video report by Lebanon-based news outlet Al Mayadeen News on its YouTube channel on May 14, 2024.
Comparing the viral clip with the original video showed that they were the same, as can be seen by the writing in the background, the speaker’s hand gestures and his facial features.
The translation of the news clip is provided below:
Anchor: “From the Yemeni support front, Yemeni Armed Forces spokesman Brigadier General Yahya Saree confirmed that Gaza is a red line and that operations are open with no red lines. He also stressed that if the aggression against Gaza continues, the armed forces will strike targets that the enemies cannot imagine.”
Houthi spokesman Yahya Saree: “If Gaza is a red line, then our causes, our sanctities, and our Islam are red lines, and we will not compromise on them. I heard Mr Al-Shammari say in the last test that there are no red lines for the Yemeni people, no red lines. If you have red lines for us, they are not red lines. We will target things that the enemy has not thought of, that the enemy cannot imagine, that even the Yemeni people and the peoples of the nation cannot imagine. And we will reach the fifth and sixth stages, God willing and with God’s power, if the enemy continues its aggression against Gaza. This means that there will be situations that even the Yemeni people cannot imagine, and that even the Americans cannot imagine.”
The Al Mayadeen News report mentions the person speaking as Yemeni Armed Forces’ spokesman Brigadier General Yahya Saree. The translated transcription shows that he did not mention Pakistan in his statements.
A keyword search for further information on the video yielded a news article published by Iranian news outlet Press TV on May 14, 2024, titled “Yemen warns it may strike targets enemy ‘can’t even imagine’”.
According to the report, Saree warned that Yemen’s armed forces might escalate their pro-Palestinian strikes if Israel kept up its “ongoing genocidal war” against the Gaza Strip.
The articles quoted Saree as saying: “Gaza is a red line for us, a red line. Our causes, holy sites and our Islam are red lines, and we will not compromise on them. We target things that the enemy hasn’t thought of and can’t imagine, things that neither the Yemeni people nor the people of the [Arab and Islamic] nation can imagine.”
Therefore, the fact-check determined that the claim that a viral video clip shows a Houthi official threatening Pakistan after the signing of a mutual defence deal with Saudi Arabia is false. The video is old from May 2024 and shows Houthi spokesperson Yahya Saree talking about Israel and the Gaza conflict.
This fact check was originally published by iVerify Pakistan — a project of CEJ-IBA and UNDP.
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