Juan Cole Informed Comment
The Helpers of God (Ansar Allah) or Houthi movement that rules some 80% of the approximately 43 million people of Yemen struck Saudi airports for a third time on Monday. The Helpers of God military renewed its warning to consumers and businesses to avoid Saudi airspace. Brigadier General Yahya Saree, the army spokesman, pledged that the Houthis would take revenge, “airport for airport, siege for siege, escalation for escalation.”
The Houthis bombed Riyadh’s international airport on Saturday, killing 12 people and wounding 302. On Sunday, they struck King Khalid International Airport again, causing unspecified injuries.
Early on Monday, the Houthis hit King Fahd International Airport outside of Dammam. They also struck the Aramco Shedgum gas plant its oil installation at Tanajib in the Eastern Province.
The Saudis branded the airport attacks “war crimes,” since they targeted civilian objects. This is correct.
Two wrongs don’t make a right, but it is maybe worth noting that the Saudis and their allies have bombed Sanaa International Airport in Yemen repeatedly, including this past summer.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi called Saudi Foreign Minister Farhan Bin Sultan on Sunday to offer Iran’s efforts at mediating a settlement between the Saudis and the Houthis. It was the first such Iran-Saudi contact since this summer, before the current Houthi campaign to break the Saudi siege of north Yemen began.
The Houthis’ ability to get past Saudi missile defense shields is unexpected and points to heretofore unknown Saudi weaknesses. Likewise, the recent Houthi advances at Mocha on the Red Sea coast and at Taiz reveal hidden strengths of the movement.
The Helpers of God took over most of Yemen in 2014-2015. In spring 2015 then-Defense Minister Mohammed Bin Salman launched an all-out air war on the group in conjunction with the United Arab Emirates and several other countries, including Jordan. The UAE committed troops to pushing the Houthis back out of the southern port of Aden, coordinating with southern secessionists. The war lasted seven years and at the end of it, Saudi Arabia and the UAE had nothing to show for it. They sometimes fell to fighting each other in Yemen instead of the Helpers of God. In the meantime, they bombed military and civilian areas and infrastructure in Saadeh in the north, in Sanaa and at the port of Hodeidah intensively and frequently. At one point Riyadh tried to impose an oil embargo on Yemen, which would prevent civilians from driving to market to buy food.
In April 2022 the Saudis and the Houthis signed a truce agreement.
But Saudi Arabia continued to back the tiny internationally recognized government of Yemen, which deployed troops against the Houthis. The Helpers of Gad decided this summer that with the weakening of the Saudis by the Iranian riposte to the Israeli-US war on Tehran, it was time to take Riyadh down a notch.
Juan Cole’s Informed Comment delivers independent, expert analysis of war, the Middle East, climate change, and U.S. foreign policy. Help sustain this work
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