Yemen’s Houthis fire on Abha after Sanaa airport runway attack

Houthi ballistic missiles and drones targeted Abha International Airport yesterday, the first direct attack on Saudi territory since the truce froze the Yemen war in 2022. Coalition spokesperson Turki Al Malki said air defenses dealt with ballistic missiles launched toward the southern region, and no casualties were reported. Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree declared the “de-escalation phase” over and warned the strikes “will not go unanswered or unpunished.”

What set this off? Yemen's internationally recognized government said it cratered the Sanaa airport runway to stop an Iranian aircraft from landing, after failing to persuade the Houthi delegation returning from Ayatollah Khamenei's funeral in Tehran to fly home on national carrier Yemenia instead, AFP reported.

Saudi silence: Riyadh has said nothing beyond the intercept statement, and Presidential Leadership Council head Rashad Al Alimi has said that he ordered that “the scope of the confrontation not be expanded,” but the Houthis are blaming Riyadh anyway.

Why it matters

Gigaproject pitches, tourism targets, and FDI conversations since 2022 have been underwritten by the assumption that missiles over Abha were a closed chapter. Yesterday, it reopened amid a US-Iran war that has already pulled Iranian fire onto US-linked sites in Bahrain, Kuwait, and Jordan.

Quiet on the southern border was never a footnote to the Saudi growth story. Riyadh has spent an estimated USD 265 bn-plus on the Yemen campaign since 2015, and its pivot away from the war was explicitly about clearing the decks for Vision 2030, as the Houthis could spoil the plan by firing missiles across the border.

BACKGROUND- The peace track the missiles just landed on: The UN-mediated roadmap agreed in principle in late 2023 envisioned Riyadh paying Yemeni public-sector salaries, sharing oil revenue, and reopening Sanaa airport and Hodeidah port in exchange for a lasting ceasefire. The airport at the center of that bargain is the one the Yemeni government just bombed. Since the formal truce lapsed, peace has rested on a de facto arrangement — one both sides now say the other has broken.

Watching the Red Sea flank: With Hormuz contested, the East-West pipeline to Yanbu is carrying the Kingdom's workaround barrels. Kpler put Yanbu loadings at some 4.66 mn bbl / d at the height of the spring rerouting. The Houthis' stated target list includes Saudi “airports and vital interests on land and sea,” and the group has been able to touch Jazan and Yanbu before.

The bright side? The Houthis have too much to lose from targeting energy assets. Eurasia Group said at the start of the war that Saudi payments would likely keep the Houthis from major attacks on the Kingdom’s oil infrastructure, but escalation against Iran would push them toward “selective action that does not fully disrupt Saudi oil flows.” Abha’s airports fit the bill, but the situation remains too volatile to call anything yet.