Claim: A video shows Yemen’s Brigadier General Yahya Qasim Sare’e issuing a threat to Pakistani soldiers who would be stationed at the Saudi-Yemen border following the signing of a defence pact between Saudi Arabia and Pakistan.
Fact: The video statement of the Yemeni commander is unrelated to the recently signed mutual defence pact between Saudi Arabia and Pakistan as it appeared in May 2024.
On 19 September, an X user posted a video (archive) that apparently showed a Yemeni commander, Yahya Qasim Sare’e, issuing a threat to Pakistani soldiers after Saudi Arabia signed a defence pact with Pakistan.
“BREAKING: Tensions escalate after Pakistan sends 25,000 troops to the Saudi–Yemen border under a new defence pact. Houthi fighters issued a stark threat, saying they will “turn the Yemen–Saudi border into a graveyard for Pakistani soldiers,” raising fears of wider confrontation,” reads the description of the post.
The claim surfaced after Pakistan and Saudi Arabia signed a mutual defence pact on 17 September that considers an attack on either country as an act of aggression against both.
Fact or Fiction?
Soch Fact Check couldn’t find any news reports to verify the claim that Pakistan was sending 25,000 soldiers to the Saudi Arabia-Yemen border under the newly signed defence pact and that the Yemeni commander issued a threat. This raised suspicions that the X user’s claim was likely false.
Soch Fact Check reverse-searched keyframes from the video in the claim and found the same clips of Yahya Sare’e, the spokesperson of the Yemeni armed forces, from 2024, confirming that the statement predates the signing of the Strategic Mutual Defence Agreement between Saudi Arabia and Pakistan in September 2025.
A user posted a similar video on Odnoklassniki, a Russian social networking platform, on 3 July 2024. The scenes in this clip match the footage from the claim, indicating that it is old and unrelated to the signing of the defence pact.
Soch Fact Check identified an even earlier instance of the clip on YouTube, posted on 14 May 2024 by Al Mayadeen News, a Lebanese media network. The video is titled [translated into English] “Quick: If the aggression on Gaza continues, we will strike targets that the enemies cannot imagine”, which suggests that the statement by Saare’e is not about or addressed to Pakistan. At the 0:20 mark onwards, this video aligns with the one from the claim, confirming that it appeared well before the signing of the defence pact between Saudi Arabia and Pakistan.
On the left is the screenshot of the video from the claim. On the right is a screen grab of the YouTube video by Al Mayadeen News.
Moreover, we reached out to the Arab Network for Fact-Checkers (AFCN), an initiative by Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism (ARIJ), for a translation of what is said in the above video. Abdulrahman Rabie, a fact-checker, translated the footage and told Soch Fact Check that the news anchor says:
“From the Yemeni support front, the spokesperson for the Yemeni Armed Forces, Brigadier General Yahya Saree, confirmed that Gaza is a red line and operations are open with no red lines before them. He also stressed that if the aggression against Gaza continues, the Armed Forces will strike targets the enemies cannot imagine.”
Then the YouTube video continues to show Saare’e’s statement. According to Rabie’s translation, he actually says:
“For Yemen, Gaza is a red line — our causes, our sacred sites, and our Islam are red lines we will not concede. You heard the leader of the Ansar Allah movement, Sayyid, in his recent address (referring to Abdul-Malik Badr al-Din al-Houthi): our operations are open and there are no red lines before us, and if the aggression against Gaza continues, we will strike targets that neither enemies nor even friends can imagine.”
Ansar Allah refers to the Houthis, an armed group that controls most parts of Yemen.
This confirms that his statement is not addressed to Pakistan, and is entirely unrelated to the defence pact between Saudi Arabia and Pakistan.
Abdulrahman Rabie further confirmed that the video originally appeared in 2024 on a Telegram channel, titled [translated from Arabic via Google Translate] “Field Coverage – Ansar Allah Media Center”. The description of the channel states that it is “dedicated to publishing photos and videos of field coverage of various events (marches, protests, seminars, etc.)”.
“It was published on May 13, 2024, during a religious event organized by the group [Houthis or Ansar Allah], which is meant to celebrate the significance of the slogan raised against America and Israel,” said Rabie.
The relevant section of the clip that matches the video from the claim appears at 29:20 in the footage from Telegram, confirming that it is indeed old.
Soch Fact Check, therefore, concludes that the claim is false.
Virality
The X post was viewed over 1.2 million times, received 13,000 likes and was reposted 2,600 times.
It also appeared here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.
On Facebook here, here, and here.
Conclusion: The video statement of the Yemeni commander is unrelated to the Saudi-Pakistan defence pact, as it appeared as early as May 2024.
Background image in cover photo: Al Arabiya
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