Assistant editor-in-chief of the official Saudi “Okaz” newspaper and the most prominent foreign policy theorist of his country, Abdullah Al Hatayla, has accused the Islah Party of being behind the movement of the tribes against what he described as “legitimacy.”
Al Hatayla accused tribal militants from Al Hariqadan of being behind the kidnapping of Italian diplomat “Alessandro Ciadotto” from Sanaa in 2012.
It is not yet clear whether Saudi Arabia is trying to blackmail the tribes and Islah in Marib by moving the file of the kidnapping of the Italian diplomat, or an attempt to criminalize the tribes in preparation for targeting them.
However, the accusations’ coincidence with the mobilizations of Ibn Aziz towards Ubaidah indicates the existence of Saudi efforts to support the attack on the tribes in a last attempt to end the influence of Islah and the Islahi leader Sultan al-Arada.
