Houthis Threaten Saudi Siege, Float Bab al-Mandeb Closure
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- Mohammed al-Bukhaiti, a member of the Houthi political bureau, threatened a "siege" on Saudi Arabia after Monday's attack on Sanaa International Airport, declaring Yemen "has the right to strike their airports" as Saudi Arabia "has done to us."
- Houthi spokesperson Yahya Saree said Monday's attack ended the "de-escalation phase" of Yemen's war, terminating four years of relative calm that followed a temporary truce.
- The Houthis fired a ballistic missile salvo at Saudi Arabia's Abha International Airport in southern Saudi Arabia; the Saudi-led coalition said it successfully intercepted the missiles.
- Al-Bukhaiti called the Bab al-Mandeb Strait a "strategic asset that Yemen has the luxury of utilising," saying it would be used against nations "actively transgressing on us" but spare uninvolved countries.
- Yemen's internationally recognized government — not Saudi Arabia — claimed responsibility for the Sanaa Airport strike, saying it targeted an Iranian plane carrying a Houthi delegation returning from the funeral of Iran's late Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, killed February 28 in the US-Israeli war on Iran.
- Yemen's UN ambassador Abdullah al-Saadi told the Security Council the diverted Iranian plane was linked to the IRGC and carried "personnel, know-how, and military and dual-use equipment"; the Yemeni government said it had offered to fly the Houthi delegation home on a Yemeni airline.
- The July 3 Tehran–Sanaa flight that triggered this week's escalation was the first publicly announced Iranian flight to land in Sanaa in more than a decade.
Why it matters: If the Houthis close Bab al-Mandeb while Strait of Hormuz threats continue from the US-Iran war, simultaneous disruption at both ends of the Arabian Peninsula would hammer global energy and shipping — and the Houthis have already demonstrated they can paralyze Red Sea traffic, having sunk four ships and killed nine sailors during their 2024–2025 campaign before the October 2025 Gaza ceasefire paused those attacks.
