Houthi Attacks Intensify as Allies Strengthen Support for Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan are set to hold an urgent, high-level meeting under a joint defense pact to discuss how to support the Kingdom amid escalating attacks from Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis, even as Tehran works to distance itself from its allies’ rapid advance.
The Houthis have launched strikes against Yemen’s UN-recognized government and repeatedly fired into Saudi Arabia, disrupting oil flows from the world’s largest energy exporter as part of the wider Middle East war that began with US and Israeli strikes on Iran in February. The group said it fired dozens of missiles and drones at Saudi targets on Thursday, while Saudi authorities said they intercepted six ballistic missiles. Emergency alerts were issued earlier for areas including the holy city of Makkah, Jeddah and the Red Sea oil port of Yanbu, and Saudi Arabia’s top religious authority called on soldiers to be ready to fight until the Houthis are removed from power, according to the Saudi state news agency.
Amid the fighting, the Saudi, Pakistani and Turkish foreign ministers met under the framework of the Makkah Joint Defense Agreement, according to a Saudi Foreign Ministry statement, condemning attacks on Makkah and other civilian sites while affirming Saudi Arabia’s right to defend itself. The statement said the ministers also discussed plans for an urgent meeting between the three countries’ chiefs of staff, under an agreement stipulating that an attack against any one of the parties constitutes an attack against all parties.
The announcement came shortly after Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian sought to distance Tehran from the Houthis during an American television interview, telling Fox News that the Houthis are responsible for their own actions, a day after addressing the UN General Assembly in New York.
Pezeshkian’s remarks came amid a pause in direct fighting between the US and Iran and a brief diplomatic push in New York, with Qatar serving as an intermediary. Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi told reporters Thursday that Tehran had passed a proposal to Washington through intermediaries under which the Strait of Hormuz would reopen if Iran’s conditions were met, with hostilities ending across all fronts, including Lebanon, within seven days, and the US lifting its port blockade, releasing frozen funds and waiving oil sanctions. He said the strait would be reopened on the last day of that process, after which talks on other issues, including Iran’s nuclear program, would begin. A senior Iranian official told Reuters Wednesday that Tehran was reviewing Washington’s response to the proposal.
The war, launched by President Trump alongside Israel in February, has killed thousands and disrupted global energy supplies, pushing oil prices higher. While the US and Iran have largely stepped back from direct combat, Iran’s regional allies remain active, with Hezbollah confronting Israel in Lebanon and the Houthis advancing in Yemen. Together, Iran and its allies have significantly squeezed oil exports from Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states, with the Houthis disrupting shipping at the mouth of the Red Sea and Iran limiting tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, which carried 20 percent of the world’s oil exports before the war began. A separate attack by Iran-backed militias in Iraq also temporarily knocked out Saudi Arabia’s East-West Pipeline.
Security analysts continue to debate how directly Iran controls the Houthis, a Shiite Islamist movement that evolved from a local insurgency into a powerful force controlling much of northern Yemen. Still, Yemeni government, Iranian and regional sources say the Houthis’ advance along Yemen’s Red Sea coast was carried out under direct guidance from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
With the broader US-Israeli campaign against Iran largely stalemated on the battlefield for months, Washington has shifted tactics, moving to extend the reach of its financial sanctions by targeting third-country companies doing business with Iranian firms, a practice known as secondary sanctions. In response to new sanctions, Iranian airlines were barred from neighboring countries including the UAE and Oman on Thursday, marking the first major impact of that policy shift. A sustained flight ban could deepen Iran’s isolation and worsen its economic crisis, which is already strained by a US blockade of its sea ports. One retired teacher in Tehran, speaking to Reuters by text message on condition of anonymity, described the situation simply: “We are living in an open-air prison.”
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