The Iranian website Jihan News, which is close to Iranian intelligence circles, said that the visit of Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki to Yemen had been cancelled completely due to threats by Saudi Arabia against Yemen.
According to the report, a Saudi official who secretly visited Yemen threatened Yemen President Ali Abdallah Salah that a visit from Mottaki would lead to the cancellation of Saudi Arabia's economic aid to Yemen, because the Iranian mediation initiative on the issue of the Houthi rebels in Yemen is against Saudi policy.
Senior Iranian Ayatollah Makarem Shirazi said that Wahhabism, the predominant school of Islam in Saudi Arabia, is the root of terrorism, and called on the leaders of Islamic countries to correct its mistaken precepts.
(See also Yemen Says No To Iranian FM's Visit)
Sources: Fars, Iran, October 21, 2009; Jihan News, Iran, October 20, 2009
