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Yemen’s Houthi leader Abdul-Malik al-Houthi threatened Saudi Arabia with “full escalation,” hours before Riyadh announced a new maritime defence coalition designed to counter the Iran-backed group’s expanding campaign against Red Sea shipping.
“The indicators show that the Saudi side is heading towards full escalation, and we will respond to its full escalation with full escalation,” al-Houthi said in a lengthy televised address on Thursday.
The Houthi leader also warned that aircraft Turkey sold to Saudi Arabia would “turn into unsellable stock once they are shot down in Yemen,” saying Riyadh had already lost American MQ-9 drones and Chinese-supplied aircraft in the conflict.
Al-Houthi accused Saudi Arabia of keeping Yemen in a deliberate cycle of economic and political crisis, saying what he described as “US-Saudi aggression” had been under way since the Saudi-led coalition intervened in the war in 2015.
The de-escalation period had come only after “a clear Saudi-American failure” to break Yemeni resistance, according to al-Houthi.
He denied the movement — formally known as Ansar Allah — was a proxy for Iran or any other power, saying it acted solely in defence of Yemeni sovereignty and resources.
“Our people are not disputing the Saudi regime over anything that belongs to it, but over our land, our resources, our freedom and our dignity,” he said.
The Houthis, who came to power in late 2014 after storming Sana’a and seizing the presidential palace and key military sites, forcing Yemen’s government into exile, are part of Tehran’s so-called Axis of Resistance.
The Axis is a loose network of militant groups in several countries in the region, including Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas in Gaza and militias in Iraq, backed, trained and equipped by the IRGC to varying degrees.
Saudi maritime coalition
Saudi Arabia’s response to the Houthi maritime campaign took institutional form on Thursday, when Riyadh hosted representatives from 43 countries — out of 51 invited — and the EU to discuss the creation of a new Multinational Maritime Defence Coalition.
Fourteen countries signed a founding statement, including Pakistan, Turkey, Egypt, Jordan and Djibouti.
The coalition is designed to protect freedom of navigation and energy supply routes through the Bab al-Mandeb Strait, the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.
Saudi Arabia will serve as the founding and leading state and will host the coalition’s permanent headquarters, joint command and operational centre.
The Saudi defence ministry said the door remained open for additional countries to join after completing their national procedures.
The EU, which already runs the Aspides naval protection mission in the Red Sea, sent a delegation but did not sign the deal. It was not immediately clear how the new Saudi-led coalition would interact with the existing EU mission.
Blockade and tanker attack
The Houthis announced last week a naval blockade against Saudi Arabia on 20 July. In the meantime, the movement claimed responsibility for an attack on a Saudi oil tanker off the port of Jazan on the kingdom’s southern Red Sea coast.
Riyadh has since launched air strikes on Houthi military positions and infrastructure in Hodeidah, Yemen’s main Red Sea port.
On the drone attack on the US-owned LNG terminal at Egypt’s Damietta port on Wednesday, the Houthis issued a flat denial.
The group’s Saba news agency quoted an official saying reports of the attack were “incorrect” and that the movement’s operations were “limited to targeting Saudi Arabia in response to the siege and ongoing aggression against the Yemeni people.”
Egypt’s Cabinet confirmed on Thursday morning that preliminary investigations had found a drone caused the fire. No group has claimed responsibility.
The Bab al-Mandeb Strait, linking the southern Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean, carries roughly 12% of global maritime trade.
The Houthis disrupted it severely with their campaign against Israel-linked shipping during the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, claiming it was in a show of support for Palestinians.
The Bab el-Mandeb campaign comes at a time when the Strait of Hormuz, the Gulf’s other critical chokepoint, remained under blockade after the US-Iran war continued following the collapse of the interim deal between the two sides.