The security services of the Houthi group in Yemen claimed to thwart “hostile activities” by the British intelligence service and the Saudi intelligence service, noting the arrest of a British spy network linked to the British and Saudi intelligence services during December 2024. A statement by the Houthi security services claimed that British Intelligence, in cooperation and coordination with Saudi Intelligence, sought to attract, recruit and train espionage elements for the purpose of carrying out intelligence activities targeting the country’s capabilities. The strategy, and that the spy network “targeted strategic sites such as the missile force, drones, and the homes of some leaders.”

According to what was stated in the statement, “British and Saudi intelligence officers trained spy elements on monitoring and gathering information inside Riyadh,” speaking about providing the devices used in espionage with advanced technologies for determining locations and collecting coordinates. The statement pointed out that "the intelligence services in Riyadh were sending specific missions and coordinates after assigning the spy elements through Saudi officers and directing them to move to the location of the mission or coordinate to conduct fixed or mobile surveillance," as stated in the statement.

He added that "British intelligence officers provided the elements with the means and devices to help confirm and upload information and coordinates after training them in using them, and that the information obtained confirmed that British intelligence officers had taken Saudi territory as a center for managing and implementing intelligence activities, and that they had sent specific tasks and coordinates." After assigning the spy elements through Saudi officers.” The Houthis also said in their statement that British intelligence officers were directed to collect information about the coordinates and submit it, or to plant tracking devices in some cars, or to photograph those on board, and they were also directed to carry out some other intelligence tasks and activities.

The statement claimed that the defendants who were arrested admitted to “carrying out intelligence tasks and activities assigned to them by British and Saudi officers.” The statement added that among the most prominent confessions of the elements was their implementation of monitoring and surveillance operations in some sensitive places, military, security and civilian sites, and “monitoring some state leaders.” The statement called on those it called “those involved with enemy intelligence” to “surrender themselves,” warning of penalties up to death, noting that “the security services are able to reach them wherever they are.”

The Houthis threaten

The Houthis’ announcement of thwarting “hostile activities by the British Intelligence Service and the Saudi Intelligence Service” came one day after the group’s leader, Muhammad Ali al-Houthi, threatened Saudi Arabia, where he addressed it by saying that “reducing the escalation was an opportunity to re-read the wrong assessments that had implicated you previously.” He added, "You imagined that Yemen would fall within two weeks, and today any other misreading will be doomed to failure, and the Yemeni people will prevail."

Al-Houthi said, “The options of our people, their forces, and their tribes are open against any other conspiracy against our country, and the goals and their ceiling will be above what is expected in all fields, and our people have experience and readiness to confront any escalation aimed at distracting them from the Palestinian issue.”