Saudi coalition threatens force over Houthi-Iran Sanaa flight
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- Saudi-led coalition spokesman Major-General Turki al-Maliki pledged "unprecedented determination and force" against any attempt to target Saudi Arabia or violate Yemeni sovereignty, after Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Saree threatened a "comprehensive" response against Saudi airports and vital land and sea interests.
- Yahya Saree said on Friday that Houthi forces used air defence missiles to prevent Saudi warplanes from blocking an Iranian civilian aircraft carrying more than 200 patients and a Houthi delegation travelling to Tehran for the funeral of Iran's late supreme leader.
- The Iranian civilian flight was the first publicly confirmed Iranian aircraft to land at Sanaa International Airport in roughly a decade, a fact Yemen's internationally recognised government condemned as a violation of sovereignty.
- Yemen's Presidential Leadership Council, chaired by President Rashad al-Alimi, held an emergency meeting on Friday and called on the UN and regional partners to impose deterrent measures, including tighter controls on channels arming the Houthis.
- Houthi military posture exposes civilian infrastructure — Hodeidah, Ras Isa, and as-Salif ports, Sanaa International Airport, power stations, and industrial facilities — to potential coalition targeting, al-Maliki warned, reiterating accusations that the group has attacked shipping in the southern Red Sea and Bab al-Mandeb Strait.
Why it matters: The coalition's pledge of "unprecedented force" widens a war the UN has already called one of the world's most severe humanitarian crises, while the first publicly confirmed Iranian civilian landing in Sanaa in roughly a decade signals a new channel of Tehran-Houthi connectivity that Riyadh is now explicitly framing as a sovereignty violation justifying escalation.
