Saudi-Houthi strikes continue to escalate

Fighting continues between the Saudi-led military coalition and Yemen's Houthi group, with both sides launching fresh attacks, including on airports and oil facilities, with no signs of abating.

In the latest developments, coalition spokesman Turki Al-Malki said in a Thursday post on X that the forces intercepted and destroyed a cruise missile in the Medina region. Also, in separate posts on X on Wednesday, the coalition said it intercepted and destroyed a drone in the Riyadh region, a cruise missile in Al-Kharj Governorate, and a ballistic missile launched by the Houthi militia toward Riyadh.

The Yemen-based Houthis denied carrying out attacks on Saudi Arabia on Thursday. However, in their previous statement a day earlier, they warned they would continue to target airports and oil facilities in Saudi Arabia in the coming days, defying neighbors and international calls to de-escalate, including a warning from United States President Donald Trump.

In a statement posted on X early on Thursday, Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree said the Houthi armed forces were recently able to target a Saudi "Typhoon" warplane that took off from Taif Air Base. The spokesman claimed it was struck directly in the airspace over the Northern Yemeni Saada Governorate with a surface-to-air missile.

They also targeted King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh anew, with a ballistic missile, and the strike was "precise and direct".

Yemen's Foreign Minister Afrah al-Zouba told reporters in a virtual news briefing that if the Houthis were given more time, they "will become an undefeatable militia. They will be monsters", Arab News reported.

Al-Zouba said the Yemeni government had abandoned "the illusion of peace" that had allowed the Houthis "to regroup, rearm, and reattack the foundations of our state", adding that the danger had now spread to the Horn of Africa.

Negotiations ruled out

"We are not calling for a ceasefire. We are not calling for starting any negotiations with the Houthis," the foreign minister was quoted as saying. She added that any ceasefire or political process must now come "with the needed conditions to make it real. We don't want to sign the same truce twice and expect different results".

The Yemeni government on Wednesday urged the United Nations and the UN Security Council to take effective action to lift the "suffocating siege" imposed by the Houthi militia on the city of Taiz, warning that the situation risks developing into a large-scale humanitarian catastrophe.

Al-Zouba sent the appeal in a letter to the UN Secretary-General, the President of the UN Security Council, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, the President of the International Committee of the Red Cross, and the UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs.

She also called for stronger monitoring, documentation, and accountability mechanisms to preserve evidence of violations, hold perpetrators accountable, and prevent impunity.

"The gravity of the current situation in Taiz, and the direct threat it poses to the lives, dignity, and fundamental rights of civilians, requires urgent international action that goes beyond expressions of concern," the foreign minister said in the letter as she called for "practical and tangible measures" to end the siege, restore essential supplies, and protect civilian infrastructure.

Meanwhile in the US, at a rally in the state of Montana, Trump said that the Iran conflict will end "very soon" and that Iran "will never have a nuclear weapon, and oil prices will drop like a rock".

Iran's Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said in a TV interview that both military action and talks are tools to achieve deterrence, adding that the US must be punished and make concessions in dealing with Iran, Iran's Mehr News Agency reported.

Ghalibaf criticized Washington for violating the Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding signed between Iran and the US in June, which has since lapsed.

"Even if the United States accepts commitments in a signed document, this would not, by itself, prevent another attack on Iran," he was quoted as saying.