Houthis say Assad closed their embassy in exchange for Saudi one opening

Yemen's Houthi rebel group said Syrian President Bashar al-Assad closed down their embassy in Damascus in exchange for the opening of the Saudi embassy in 2023.

Speaking shortly after Assad's government collapsed in Damascus, Nasruddin Amer - a spokesperson for the group who are also known as Ansarallah - wrote on X to those asking about the safety of their embassy in Syria.

"Our embassy in Syria was closed by Bashar in exchange for the opening of the Saudi embassy," he said.

"The ambassador of our government and the embassy staff left and returned to [Yemeni capital] Sanaa at around October 2023."

The Houthis have often been referred to as part of the Axis of Resistance, a group of countries and actors across the Middle East with links to Iran who are staunchly opposed to Israel.

Although Assad was considered a key part of this alliance, he had in recent years attempted to end the international isolation that had characterised his administration since the beginning of the Syria war in 2011.

A number of Arab states that had broken off relations and supported anti-Assad forces in Syria normalised relations with Assad, including the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.

Compared to other members of the Axis, Assad's Baath Party was comparatively secular and his rule has largely shunned the kind of Islamist policies espoused by Iran or the Houthis.

The Houthis are not the only erstwhile supporters of Assad who appear to be publicly airing criticism of the ruler following his overthrow.

On Sunday, a news channel associated with the Iraqi armed group Asaib Ahl al-Haq released a report in which Assad was featured alongside other members of “the criminal Baath Party" including former Iraqi ruler Saddam Hussein.

Super interesting that the Al-Ahed TV affiliated with pro-Iran Qais al-Khaz’ali’s Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq is actually putting Bashar al-Assad in the same infographic with Saddam Hussein and Michel Aflaq entitled “the criminal Baath Party.”
Up until yesterday, the Iraqi Shia groups… https://t.co/VQBhe1zEL5

— Mohammed A. Salih (@MohammedASalih) December 8, 2024

Both Saddam and Assad were heads of their respective Baath parties, though they endured a split in the 1960s.

Iraqi armed groups had previously flocked to Syria to fight against anti-government rebels.

However, as Syrian rebels led by Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) captured city after city in the country over the past week, Iraqi factions announced that they will not intervene to prevent Assad's downfall.

Two senior Iraqi officials told Middle East Eye earlier this week that Falih al-Fayadh - overall leader of Iraq's Hashd al-Shaabi armed groups of which Asaib Ahl al-Haq is part - was dispatched to Damascus and Ankara, which supports the Syrian opposition, “in an attempt to bring the two sides closer together”.

However, Fayadh’s mediation did not yield results “as Assad refused to make any concessions”, the officials said, while the Syrian president’s request for military reinforcements was denied.