Yemen Houthis fire missiles at Saudi airport, threatening 4-year truce

The Iran-backed Houthis fired ballistic missiles and drones at Abha International Airport in southwestern Saudi Arabia on Monday, hours after a Saudi-led coalition airstrike hit Sanaa International Airport's runway — the most serious escalation since the 2022 ceasefire.

"This aggression will not go unanswered or unpunished," Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree said in a video statement, warning airlines to avoid Saudi airspace until the blockade on Sanaa airport is lifted.

The Saudi-led coalition said its air defenses intercepted the Houthi missiles targeting the southern region. The airstrike on Sanaa airport was carried out by Yemen's internationally recognized government, which said it aimed to prevent an Iranian plane carrying a Houthi delegation from landing after the group attended the funeral of late Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in Tehran. The plane was diverted to Hodeidah airport on Yemen's Red Sea coast.

The clash threatens to reignite a conflict that has killed hundreds of thousands and triggered one of the world's worst humanitarian crises. The Bab al-Mandab Strait, a 20-mile-wide chokepoint connecting the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden, handles an estimated $1 trillion in goods annually, and Houthi threats against the waterway in 2024 previously disrupted global shipping.

The Houthis accused Saudi Arabia of orchestrating the attack, though the Saudi-backed Yemeni government claimed responsibility. "The Houthi terrorist militia, supported by the Iranian regime, prevented Yemeni national aircraft from landing at the capital's airport, Sanaa, and insisted that the Iranian aircraft violate Yemeni airspace. Therefore, the airport runway was targeted," the government said in a statement.

Iran condemned the airstrike as "a clear violation of international law and the United Nations Charter," according to Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei. Saudi authorities did not immediately comment.

The last time Houthi attacks targeted Saudi infrastructure at this scale was in 2022, when a missile strike on a Jeddah oil depot during a Formula One race weekend sent Brent crude above $120 a barrel. That escalation preceded the April 2022 UN-brokered truce that largely froze the conflict despite formally expiring.

The escalation raises the risk premium on Middle Eastern crude flows. The Bab al-Mandab Strait, through which roughly 6 million barrels of oil and petroleum products transit daily, is now under renewed threat. Saudi Arabia, the world's largest oil exporter, has already been redirecting barrels through the Red Sea after the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. Brent crude prices could see a short-term spike if shipping disruptions materialize.

The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations reported suspicious activity off Yemen's coast on Monday, with six small boats approaching a tanker in the Gulf of Aden. The vessel fired warning shots as the boats continued to trail it, according to UKMTO.

Hans Grundberg, the UN Special Envoy for Yemen, urged all sides to step back from the brink. "We are urging them to de-escalate and refrain from any actions that would risk a new cycle of violence in Yemen," he said in a statement.

Mohammed al-Basha of the US-based risk advisory Basha Report said the cycle of retaliation could mark "the collapse of the April 2022 ceasefire framework and signal a return to a much more intense phase of the conflict."

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