Houthi leader threatens to ‘siege’ Saudi Arabia after Yemen airport attack | Articles of Controversy

Speaking to Al Jazeera, Houthi leader Mohammed al-Bukhaiti warns against Saudi Arabia’s attack, which causes fear of a return to all-out war in Yemen.

Sanaa, Yemen The head of Yemen’s Houthi rebels, known as Ansar Allah, has threatened to “encircle” Saudi Arabia in retaliation. attack on Sanaa International Airport. The Houthis blamed Saudi Arabia for Monday’s attack, but Yemen’s internationally recognized government claimed responsibility for it, saying it was a ploy to prevent an Iranian jet from landing in Yemen’s Houthi-controlled capital.

Speaking to Al Jazeera, Mohammed al-Bukhaiti, a member of the Houthi political organization, said the group will respond to what it thinks is coming from Saudi Arabia.

“Their willingness to attack Sanaa Airport to prevent planes from landing or taking off gives Yemen the right to strike their airports and force the city as they did to us,” al-Bukhaiti said.

Houthi spokesman Yahya Saree said Monday’s attack ended the “decreasing phase” of Yemen’s war, which has been ongoing since the Houthis took control of Sanaa in 2014. This week’s violence follows. conflict in Hodeidah between the Houthis and government forces in early July, threatening to end four years of peace since a temporary truce four years ago.

The attack, which al-Bukhaiti said “does not end without a response and punishment”, was aimed at the runway of Sanaa Airport as the Iranian plane carrying the Houthi delegation from Tehran was approaching. The delegation attended the funeral of Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, who was killed at the start of the US-Israel war in Iran on February 28.

Al-Bukhaiti was one of the officials on board the Iranian plane, which was diverted to Hodeidah, a city on the Red Sea in Yemen that is also controlled by the pro-Iran Houthis.

His comments followed the Houthis’ response to the Sanaa Airport attack: a missile fired south of Saudi Arabia’s Abha International Airport. The Saudi-led coalition said it successfully intercepted the missiles.

The Houthis have threatened to take action to end the “encirclement” of Sanaa Airport, and have promised to operate flights between Sanaa and Tehran. They say they have no problem stopping Saudi airports to achieve that goal.

Flight between Tehran and Sanaa on July 3 sparked the latest controversy, after the Houthis accused Saudi warplanes of trying to prevent an Iranian airliner from landing. The flight was the first publicly announced Iranian airliner to land in Sanaa in more than a decade.

The Yemeni government has accused Iran of using flights to Yemen as a cover to send weapons to the Houthis. Speaking at the United Nations Security Council on Monday, Yemen’s ambassador to the UN, Abdullah al-Saadi, said that the plane that is trying to land in Sanaa is affiliated with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), and has “manpower, personnel, weapons and two weapons”. He also said that the government of Yemen promised to send Houthi representatives from Tehran to Sanaa on a Yemeni plane.

The threat of Bab al-Mandeb

With the possibility of more violence in Yemen, there are now fears that the Houthis will use their territory along the Red Sea to close it. Head of al-Mandeb Straitthe southern entrance to an important waterway.

Combined with the threat of continued navigation in the Strait of Hormuz – on the other side of the Arabian Peninsula – due to the US war with Iran, any attack from the coast of Yemen would disrupt the global economy.

When asked about the possibility of the Bab al-Mandeb Strait being closed, al-Bukhaiti said that all options are on the Houthis’ table.

“The Bab al-Mandeb card is a tool that Yemen has the opportunity to use,” al-Bukhati said. “We will use this card against the countries that have wronged us the most. We will use Bab al-Mandeb in a way that will not cause any problems to the countries that are not involved in the war in Yemen.”

The Houthis have previously launched attacks on ships they say are allied with Israel or the United States following Israel’s war on Gaza. The Houthis are attacking paraplegic through the Red Sea, killing at least nine sailors, and four ships were sunk and others captured.

The US, Israel, and the United Kingdom have all been involved in strikes in Yemen in an attempt to stop the Houthi rebels, who have been stalled since the October 2025 cease-fire agreement in Gaza.