Houthi official warns of siege on Saudi Arabia after Sanaa airport strike

A senior member of Yemen’s Houthi political bureau, Mohammed al-Bukhaiti, told Al Jazeera that the group will impose a “siege” on Saudi Arabia in retaliation for the strike on Sanaa International Airport on Monday. The Houthi movement blamed Saudi forces for the attack, while Yemen’s internationally recognised government said its own forces carried out the strike to stop an Iranian aircraft from landing in the Houthi-controlled capital.

Al-Bukhaiti said the Houthis consider the airport attack a violation of Yemen’s right to keep its air links open and warned that “their willingness to attack Sanaa Airport … gives Yemen the right to strike their airports and to impose on them a siege.” He added that the response “will not pass without response and punishment.”

Houthi spokesperson Yahya Saree said the incident ended the “de-escalation phase” of the war that has continued since the group seized Sanaa in 2014. The statement came after a Houthi-launched ballistic missile salvo was fired at Saudi Arabia’s Abha International Airport, which the Saudi-led coalition reported intercepting.

The tension follows a July 3 flight from Tehran to Sanaa, the first publicly announced Iranian flight to the city in more than a decade. The Houthis claim the flight was targeted by Saudi warplanes, while Yemen’s UN ambassador, Abdullah al-Saadi, said the aircraft was linked to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and carried personnel and dual-use equipment.

Al-Bukhaiti also said the Houthis are keeping all options open regarding the Bab al-Mandeb Strait, a strategic chokepoint at the southern entrance to the Red Sea. “The Bab al-Mandeb card is a strategic asset that Yemen has the luxury of utilising,” he said, adding that it would be used against nations “actively transgressing on us” while avoiding harm to uninvolved countries.

The statements raise concerns that renewed Houthi attacks could disrupt shipping through the Red Sea and the Bab al-Mandeb, potentially affecting global trade routes already strained by tensions in the Strait of Hormuz.