Iran denies backing Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia amid fresh missile, drone interceptions

Iran on Friday denied any connection with strikes by Yemen’s Houthis, a day after Saudi Arabia accused Tehran of urging the group to escalate its recent attacks on the country.

Pro-Iran Houthis have launched numerous attacks on Saudi targets since Yemen’s civil conflict reignited in July, including Red Sea ships, oil facilities and Riyadh’s international airport, where 13 people died in one incident last week.

Yemen’s internationally recognized government has been supported by a Saudi-led military coalition for almost a decade. On Friday it reported intercepting more missiles and drones as the monarchy came under relentless attack from the Houthis.

A Saudi foreign ministry official alleged a day earlier that Iran had “encouraged” the escalation, a charge Tehran denied.Iran denies any allegations it has helped in the (Yemeni) Houthi operations,” Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said in a statement.But the Yemeni armed forces behave according to their own interests and assessments, and such allegations are not plausible for those who are familiar with the connections between Iran and its friends. But Iran does not think escalation of hostilities would be in the interests of any party,” he said.

Saudi official Deputy Minister for Public Diplomacy Dr Rayed Krimly said the Houthis had turned down an offer to meet in Oman at the start of the latest round of hostilities.

But Baqaei repeated Tehran’s offer to intervene between the two parties, adding that Iran “has always been ready to use its good offices to help end the hostilities”.

The Saudi-led military coalition said on Friday it had “intercepted and destroyed three drones in the southern area and Riyadh… and two cruise missiles over the Red Sea,” a spokesman for the alliance said.

And “in the past hours we intercepted and destroyed a ballistic missile over Yanbu”, a city on the Red Sea coast that is the end of a major oil pipeline, he said.

Houthi attacks have grown since the group’s rapid advance in Yemen in September, when it seized critical territory controlled by government forces along the Red Sea coast overlooking a vital chokepoint for global shipping.

Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest oil exporter, is facing rising pressure at a time when global energy markets are already in turmoil due to Iran’s blockage of the Strait of Hormuz at the start of the broader Middle East war in February.

Airports strike

On Thursday, the UN Security Council “condemned in the strongest terms continued and escalatory Houthi attacks against the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia”, as well as their “attacks and threats against commercial shipping in the Red Sea and Bab al-Mandeb” Strait, the southern gateway to the Suez Canal.

The Security Council also condemned the group’s “irresponsible attacks” on the airport in Riyadh, which the Saudi-led coalition says have attacked the airport at least 20 times so far this month.

On Thursday, Saudi foreign ministry official Krimly accused Iran of continuing “to arm, train and support the Houthi militia in violation of UN Security Council resolutions”.

Yemeni government forces, backed by Saudi air support, have launched a counteroffensive to reclaim territories held by the Houthis, but so far have failed to reverse their advances.

On Friday, the local security office in Aden, the government’s interim capital, said two missiles had fallen inside the boundary of the city’s airport “in the second incident of its kind in less than a week,” and no one was injured.

A military source stated in a statement that the Houthis had targeted “the command headquarters of the Saudi forces” and a weapons stockpile.

The day before, the organization launched a fatal missile attack on the presidential palace in Aden, killing five people and wounded 16, the health minister said.

Yemeni Prime Minister Shaya al-Zindani condemned the “cowardly” conduct on X, saying it was a “continuation of (the Houthis’) criminal pattern”.

One minister of the government, who declined to be named, claimed the Houthis had gone after command centers for Yemeni and Saudi coalition forces at the palace complex.

Media loyal to the Houthis stated the attack targeted “the headquarters of military operations, led by Saudi officers, at the Al-Maashiq Palace in Aden”.