Saudi Arabia said Friday that its air defense systems had intercepted a ballistic missile over the southern city of Najran. It was the last in a series of intensification of attacks by Iran-backed Houthi rebels, who have been constantly targeting Saudi infrastructure in retaliation for those led by the Saudis war against his insurrection to neighboring Yemen.
Another missile attacked Aramco’s oil distribution terminal in the city of Jizan overnight and caused a fire in one of the terminal’s tanks, the Saudi Energy Ministry said in a statement.
The Houthis rushed to reclaim the attacks, along with suicide bombing attempts.
Al Ekhbariya / Saudi Broadcasting Authority
“Our armed forces directed their military and vital facilities and the facilities of the Saudi enemy, with eighteen drones and eight ballistic missiles,” Houthis military spokesman Yahya Sareaa said in a televised statement. Friday, promising that the strikes will continue.
Saudi state media showed images of debris from several drones loaded with explosives, which the Defense Ministry said were thrown into the kingdom by the Houthis. The ministry condemned the “cowardly” attacks in a statement posted on Twitter and accused the Houthis of threatening the power supply.
The latest attacks come just days after Saudi Arabia offered a new proposal to end the war in Yemen, in which the kingdom has backed the government against the Houthis. Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal Bin Farhan outlined the plan on Monday, which would include an immediate UN-supervised ceasefire, the reopening of the airport to Yemen’s rebel capital, Saana, and the coalition. military led by Saudi Arabia lifting its blockade against the rebel. – Port of Hodeidah.
As a gesture of goodwill, the Saudi-led coalition on Friday cleared four fuel ships to dock at Hodeidah, a strategic port on the Red Sea, local media reported.
The Houthis have rejected the openings and reiterated their demand that the Saudi coalition immediately lift all air and sea blockades aimed at stifling supplies to its territory, which covers most of Yemen.
“How is it that those who have launched the war now claim that they are eager to mediate peace in our country?” Houthi leader Abdul-Malik al-Houthi said in a televised speech on Thursday. “Lifting the blockade and other humanitarian issues could not be part of any political or military negotiations. We would never accept it.”
Andrew Harnik / AP
Meanwhile, Washington’s special envoy for Yemen, Tim Lenderking, returned to the region on Friday in a new version push to bring Yemen’s warring parties to the negotiating table. The veteran U.S. diplomat returned just two weeks ago from his second trip to the region, where he held shuttle meetings across four countries to try to get a ceasefire.
Houthis chief negotiator Mohamed Abdel Salam said on Friday that Oman-mediated talks with the US envoy and the Saudis were still underway, even as Houthi forces launched new attacks on Arabia. Saudi Arabia.
“Ideas and proposals are currently being exchanged with U.S. and UN envoys, as well as with Saudis, through the brothers of the Sultanate of Oman,” he told the Arab network Aljazeera. “Discussions revolve around humanitarian efforts, as well as other alleged measures to achieve a ceasefire and pave the way for political dialogue.”
But Saudi Arabian leaders say the latest Houthi attacks are further proof that the rebels are not really interested in ending the war.
“The attack on the oil distribution station in Jizan and the attempt to target civilians is a confirmation of the Houthi terrorist militia’s rejection of the Kingdom’s initiative to end the Yemeni crisis and a statement from Iranian tutelage over the militia’s political and military decision, “the Saudi Defense Ministry said in a statement Friday.
The war in Yemen has entered its seventh year this week. The United Nations humanitarian office estimates that the conflict, considered by many to be a power war between its rival Saudi Arabia and Iran, took place at the expense of the Yemeni people, which has claimed at least 233,000 lives, most of them civilians .
The UN has said the conflict is driving the world the worst man-made humanitarian crisis in the world.
While the United States still supports the Yemeni government in February, President Joe Biden announced the end of U.S. support for Saudi Arabia-led coalition offensive operations and called for an end to the conflict.
“This war must end,” Biden said in his first major foreign policy speech after taking office.