Leading Houthi threatens ‘siege’ on Saudi Arabia after Yemen airport attack

The Houthis blamed Saudi Arabia for the Monday attack, but Yemen’s internationally recognised government has claimed responsibility, saying that it was a measure to prevent an Iranian plane from landing in Yemen’s Houthi-controlled capital. Speaking to Al Jazeera, Mohammed al-Bukhaiti, a member of the Houthi political bureau, said that the group would respond to attacks they perceived to be from Saudi Arabia.

“Their willingness to attack Sanaa Airport to prevent flights from arriving or departing gives Yemen the right to strike their airports and to impose on them a siege just as they have done to us,” al-Bukhaiti said. Houthi spokesperson Yahya Saree said that Monday’s attack ended the “de-escalation phase” of Yemen’s war, which has been ongoing since a Houthi takeover of Sanaa in 2014. This week’s violence follows clashes in Hodeidah between Houthi and government forces earlier in July, and threatens to end four years of relative calm since a temporary truce was agreed four years ago.

The strikes, which al-Bukhaiti said “will not pass without response and punishment”, targeted Sanaa Airport’s runway as an Iranian plane carrying a Houthi delegation from Tehran was approaching. The delegation had been attending the funeral of Iran’s late Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who was killed at the start of the US-Israeli war on Iran on February 28.

Al-Bukhaiti had been among the officials travelling on the Iranian airliner, which was diverted to Hodeidah, a city on Yemen’s Red Sea coast that is also controlled by the pro-Iran Houthis. His comments followed the Houthis’ own response to the Sanaa Airport attack: a ballistic missile salvo fired at southern Saudi Arabia’s Abha International Airport. The Saudi-led coalition said that it successfully intercepted the missiles.

The Houthis have threatened further action to end the “siege” on Sanaa Airport, and pledged to keep flights between Sanaa and Tehran running. They say they have no issue paralysing Saudi airports in order to achieve that goal. A flight between Tehran and Sanaa on July 3 caused the recent tension.