Newly leaked documents reveal that while the Yemeni Armed Forces escalated their military campaign and Red Sea Blockade against Israel during the genocide in Gaza, a secret intelligence alliance and a “sophisticated espionage network” were being formed between Saudi intelligence, Israel’s Mossad and the CIA inside Riyadh to achieve regime change in Sana’a through political assassinations, dismantling Ansarallah from within, defecting military officials and gathering intelligence through charitable aid organisations.
Recently uncovered documents, combined with confessions from alleged members of a sprawling espionage network in Yemen, reveal an agenda far beyond gathering intelligence for the sake of developing a target bank inside the country. Yemeni authorities say that instead, the plan was to assassinate the country’s senior political and military leadership, while dismantling Ansarallah’s current governing structure. They argue that in their place, a Saudi-proxy leadership was being prepared, one that would steer Yemen away from its support of the Palestinian cause.
According to Yemeni investigators, the operation mirrored intelligence campaigns previously carried out against Hezbollah in Lebanon, in addition to those that sought to enable decapitation strikes against senior Iranian officials. The alleged targets included Ansar Allah leader Abdulmalik al-Houthi, President Mahdi al-Mashat, the Minister of Defense, the Chief of Staff, members of Ansar Allah’s Political Bureau, and numerous senior military commanders. At the centre of the alleged political transition was former military intelligence General Ali Al-Sayani, who Yemeni officials say was being prepared abroad to lead a post-coup government loyal to Riyadh.