Saudi Arabia calls Houthi airport attacks war crimes as Washington tightens the squeeze on Iran

Saudi Arabia on Friday described the Houthi missile and drone attacks on its airports as “full-fledged war crimes”, as its air defences brought down another drone and the United States added fresh names to its sanctions on Iran.

Major General Turki al-Maliki, spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen, said coalition forces intercepted and destroyed a drone launched towards the Eastern Province. He did not say where it came from or whether it caused any damage. The Houthis, for their part, said they had shot down a Saudi Wing Loong II drone over Marib.

Airports in the firing line

The coalition’s figures show how hard Riyadh has been hit this month. Al-Maliki said King Khalid International Airport in the capital had been attacked 20 times since 1 October, leaving 17 people dead and more than 330 injured there. Across all Saudi airports, the toll stands at 19 dead and 364 injured.

“Attacking airports endangers the lives of thousands of civilian travellers,” al-Maliki said. He added that the coalition had destroyed 127 Houthi depots in the mountains around Sanaa, Saada and Amran.

The Houthis widened their campaign on Thursday with a missile strike on the Al-Maashiq presidential palace in Aden, the seat of Yemen’s internationally recognised government. Yemen’s health minister said at least five people were killed and 16 wounded. The prime minister and the cabinet survived.

Riyadh points at Tehran

Saudi Arabia has made clear whom it blames. “Iran continues to arm, train, and support the Houthi militia in violation of UN Security Council resolutions,” Rayed Krimly, the deputy foreign minister for public diplomacy, told a briefing on Thursday.

He said channels to Tehran were still open. “We continue direct contact with Iran,” he said, but saw no sign that Iranian officials were ready to make the concessions a settlement would need. Riyadh had also tried to talk to the Houthis directly. “At the start of these tensions, we asked them to meet in Muscat, Oman, but they declined,” Krimly said.

France said it had begun deploying military assets to help protect Saudi energy infrastructure.

Washington’s pressure

In Washington, the Treasury sanctioned 16 individuals and 10 entities, including an Iraqi bank and offshore and shadow-banking networks it said had moved hundreds of millions of dollars for Iran. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent wrote on X: “The noose is tightening around Iran’s economy, and not even Iran’s so-called allies can save it.”

The Treasury’s financial crimes unit, FinCEN, also warned banks that Iran was abusing religious charity networks, including diverted religious tithes, as part of a drive it calls Operation Economic Outcast.

The White House and the Pentagon have reportedly drawn up plans to use the GBU-43 “Mother of All Bombs”, the largest non-nuclear bomb in the American arsenal, against Iranian targets if President Donald Trump orders a return to combat. “We do not comment on sensitive military plans,” a White House spokesperson said.

Trump himself sounded a more cautious note. In an interview with Newsmax he said he would not use nuclear weapons against Iran and did not see US troops going in on the ground.

Oil barely moved. Brent crude was at $105.51 a barrel early on Friday, down 0.39%.