Yemen ambassador condemns Houthis as Riyadh airport attacks raise regional tensions

Yemen’s ambassador to France, Riyad Yassin Abdallah, said on Monday, October 12, that the Houthis ‘are thriving and surviving by creating war’ as Saudi Arabia dealt with deadly attacks on Riyadh’s King Khalid International Airport. The airport remained closed on Monday, according to the Associated Press, while Saudi Arabia’s energy minister promised a serious response. The reported death toll differs between accounts of the attacks.

Abdallah made the remarks in an interview with France 24’s Mark Owen. His assessment came as Saudi authorities examined how missiles and drones had reached the capital. The ambassador’s description is his view of the Houthis; the retained reports do not include a Houthi response to his assessment.

What is known about the Riyadh airport attacks

The Associated Press reported that Saudi Arabia had opened an investigation into why its air defenses failed to intercept missiles and drones. Its account cited two regional officials who spoke anonymously because they were not authorized to comment publicly. The Saudi government had not responded to AP’s request for comment about the investigation, leaving the officials’ account without an on-the-record Saudi confirmation.

The officials told AP that the initial inquiry indicated Houthi drones were launched first, followed by cruise and ballistic missiles that reached King Khalid International Airport. They said the weapons traveled more than 1,000 kilometers to Riyadh. Investigators were examining why the defenses did not provide an earlier warning, AP reported; those findings remain preliminary.

The attacks continued to affect Riyadh on Monday. AP reported that the Saudi-led coalition said it had intercepted and destroyed two Houthi ballistic missiles launched toward the city. After explosions were heard, civil defense officials said the danger had passed. AP said the Houthis later claimed to have targeted King Khalid Airport that day and warned airlines that Saudi airports outside Mecca and Medina were unsafe.

Saudi response and disruption to travel

Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman told the World Petroleum Energy Congress in Riyadh, according to AP: ‘The events of recent weeks are serious. Our response must be equally serious.’ France 24 also reported his pledge of a serious response. Neither account establishes what action the Saudi government will take next, so the minister’s words remain a warning rather than a report of a new operation.

The immediate disruption extended beyond the damaged security picture. AP reported that King Khalid International Airport remained closed on Monday and that workers in Riyadh’s financial district had been told to work from home. The airport closure and the instruction to workers show how the attacks affected travel and daily activity in the Saudi capital, even as the inquiry into the defenses was still underway.

Airlines also changed plans, according to Agence France-Presse. Etihad cancelled flights to Riyadh until the following week and suspended services to Dammam and Jeddah. Gulf Air cancelled Riyadh flights until Saturday. Delta delayed an Atlanta–Riyadh route that had been scheduled to start on October 23. Those decisions concern distinct routes and timetables; AFP did not present a single date for normal service to resume.

Warnings over a wider confrontation

AP reported that US President Donald Trump was considering attacks against the Houthis. Asked on Monday whether the United States would defend Saudi Arabia, he replied: ‘You’ll find out soon.’ That answer did not announce a decision. The possibility of US action remains a consequential open question as Saudi Arabia weighs its own response.

Houthi political bureau member Mohammed Al Bukhaiti told AFP that US involvement in attacks on Yemen would bring a ‘swift and painful response’ against the United States and its regional interests. He also warned employees at Saudi oil facilities and airports to stay away, calling those sites legitimate targets. His comments were threats reported by AFP, not evidence that the threatened actions had occurred.

UN human rights chief Volker Turk condemned repeated attacks on Saudi Arabia and urged both sides to back down, AFP reported. He warned that continued fighting would bring further misery. His appeal followed accounts of deaths, injuries and interrupted flights, while the scale and shape of any further military response remained unsettled in the reporting available on Monday.

The Saudi-led coalition has militarily supported Yemen’s internationally recognized government since 2015, AP reported. AP also placed the renewed fighting within a wider Middle East conflict that had been underway for more than seven months. That history gives context to Abdallah’s criticism of the Houthis, but it does not settle responsibility for every reported strike or predict the next move by Saudi Arabia or the United States.

University of Ottawa security analyst Thomas Juneau told AFP that Saudi Arabia’s size makes consistent defense impossible despite some successes. He said the Houthis want to do to Saudi Arabia what Saudi Arabia does to them. His analysis helps explain the challenge facing air defenses; the specific sequence of weapons at Riyadh airport still rests on AP’s account of the preliminary inquiry and its unnamed officials.