Yemen's Houthis threatened to strike Saudi targets after accusing Saudi aircraft of trying to prevent an Iranian civilian plane from landing at Sanaa International Airport.
The warning was delivered by the group's military spokesperson, Yahya Sarea, who said Houthi forces had confronted what he described as Saudi warplanes. He said the group would target Saudi airports and vital interests on land and at sea if violations of Yemeni airspace continued.
Sarea also said flights between Sanaa and Tehran would continue despite possible consequences. The dispute followed the arrival of an Iranian aircraft in Sanaa that carried an official Houthi delegation to Tehran for the funeral of Iran's late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
More than 200 patients were also reported to have been among the passengers on board. The flight therefore carried both political and humanitarian significance in a route closely watched because of the Houthis' alignment with Iran.
The Saudi-led coalition rejected the Houthi statements and said they were an attempt to divert attention from the group's violations against Yemenis. The coalition warned that any effort to target the kingdom or violate Yemen's sovereignty would be met firmly and with unprecedented force.
Saudi Arabia has led a military coalition in Yemen since 2015, after the Houthis seized Sanaa. The group has demonstrated missile and drone capabilities during the war, including attacks on Saudi oil facilities and other vital infrastructure.
The latest exchange renews attention on the fragile security environment around Sanaa airport, Saudi territory and the wider Red Sea-Gulf region, where aviation, missile threats and regional alignments remain closely connected.
