Saudi Energy Minister Pledges Strong Response as Houthi Strikes on Airports and Oil Sites Escalate

Saudi Arabia's energy minister has declared that the kingdom will deliver a "serious" response to a wave of deadly attacks by Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi movement, which have targeted airports and energy infrastructure across the country in recent days. Prince Abdul Aziz bin Salman made the remarks during an address to the WPC Energy Congress in Riyadh, signalling that the escalating confrontation is now directly affecting the heart of the Saudi state and its critical economic assets.

"The events of recent weeks are serious. Our response must be equally serious," the minister told an audience of industry executives and policymakers, according to his inaugural speech at the conference on Monday. His comments came after a series of strikes that have killed civilians and disrupted air travel, raising urgent questions about the vulnerability of Saudi Arabia's aviation and energy networks.

The most recent fatality occurred on Sunday, when a Pakistani resident was killed by a projectile that struck Terminal 4 at King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh, the General Authority of Civil Aviation confirmed. That attack followed a Houthi missile strike on Terminal 3 on Saturday, which killed 13 people and forced the terminal to close. Among the dead in Saturday's strike were four Saudis and nine foreign nationals from countries including Bangladesh, the United States, Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Palestine, Sudan and India, according to official figures.

The violence has not been confined to the capital. On Sunday evening, King Fahd International Airport in the north-eastern city of Dammam was also attacked, though authorities reported no casualties. Later that night, the Saudi-led coalition said its forces had intercepted a drone in Eastern Province and a missile fired by the Houthis towards the south-western city of Khamis Mushait, underscoring the geographical breadth of the threat.

The attacks have unfolded at a striking pace. Last Thursday, three Saudis, including a pilot for the national carrier Saudia, were killed in two separate strikes on an airport facility and an aircraft on the ground. Riyadh's airport has now been targeted four times in the past week alone, despite its status as the kingdom's primary international gateway and a symbol of its global connectivity ambitions.

The Houthis have framed their campaign as retaliation for what they describe as "brutal Saudi aggression" against areas under their control in western Yemen. On Sunday evening, Houthi military spokesman Yahya Sarea said in a video statement that the group had launched missiles and drones at Riyadh and Dammam airports, as well as two oil and gas facilities in Eastern Province, in response to 124 Saudi air strikes in Yemen over the previous 24 hours.

Sarea also issued a renewed warning to airlines and passengers to avoid Saudi airports and airspace, with the sole exception of flights to and from the Islamic holy cities of Mecca and Medina. He vowed that Houthi forces would "continue their escalating operations deep inside Saudi," describing their approach as "a blockade for a blockade" and "an escalation for an escalation." The spokesman said the attacks would persist until what he called the aggression ceases and the siege on the Yemeni people is lifted.

The humanitarian toll has been felt on both sides of the border. The Houthi-run health ministry said a child was killed and six other people were injured in a Saudi air strike on a home in the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, on Sunday. A Saudi-led coalition is providing air support for Yemeni pro-government forces battling the Houthis along Yemen's Red Sea coast and in other areas, a campaign that has intensified in recent weeks.

The diplomatic fallout has been swift and widespread. United Nations Secretary General António Guterres said he was "deeply shocked" by Saturday's attack on Riyadh airport and warned that strikes on civilians and civilian infrastructure constitute a violation of international law. His intervention reflects growing international alarm that the conflict, now in its second decade, is spilling further across borders and threatening regional stability.

President Donald Trump said he would "make a decision" about whether the United States would join Saudi Arabia's strikes on the Houthis. The US military is reportedly already providing intelligence and targeting support to the Saudi-led coalition, a level of involvement that, if deepened, could significantly alter the trajectory of the conflict. Iran, which has consistently denied allegations that it supplies weapons and training to the Houthis, said it was "deeply concerned" by the escalation and called for "dialogue and engagement" to resolve the crisis.

The broader context is a civil war that began in 2014, when the Houthis ousted Yemen's internationally recognised government from Sanaa. The conflict escalated dramatically in 2015, when the Saudi-led coalition intervened militarily in an attempt to restore the government's rule. A four-year informal ceasefire began to unravel in July, when the Houthis announced a "maritime embargo" against Saudi Arabia and launched missile and drone attacks on Saudi airports, oil facilities and tankers in the Red Sea.

The Houthis have said they were retaliating for what they call a Saudi blockade of ports and airports in their territory, as well as an air strike on Sanaa airport that they blamed on the kingdom. Yemen's government claimed responsibility for that strike, saying it was attempting to prevent an unauthorised Iranian plane from landing, a claim that has done little to quell the anger driving the Houthi campaign.

Last month, the Houthis launched a surprise offensive along Yemen's south-western Red Sea coast, ousting pro-government forces from areas overlooking the Bab al-Mandab Strait, at the southern end of the Red Sea. The group said it posed no threat to international shipping passing through the waterway but that it would continue to target vessels from Saudi Arabia, a distinction that shipping companies and foreign navies have viewed with scepticism.

Addressing the energy congress, Prince Abdul Aziz struck a defiant tone. He thanked industry executives and policymakers for attending despite the attacks, telling them: "You know this country is safe and that we hold your protection at whole heart." Yet he also acknowledged that "energy security cannot be taken for granted" and that recent developments had "tested our infrastructure, our institutions, our people, and our resilience."

He promised that Saudi Arabia would overcome the challenges, saying: "We, as Saudis, are fearless, combatant and determined people. We shall prove it to the world that whatever we are going through we will overcome it." There was no immediate comment from the Houthis on the minister's remarks. The coming days will reveal whether the kingdom's promised response is diplomatic, military or both, and whether the conflict spirals further or is pulled back from the brink.