Photo: IRIB
A few hours after Yemeni fighters targeted Saudi oil tankers and Abu Dhabi Airport, a senior member of the Houthis’ Political Council, in an interview with Iran’s state TV, threatened that they would further expand their attacks hereafter, and if Saudi Arabia and its allies did not put a stop to their attacks on Yemen, the Yemeni fighters would target their key political, economic and military zones.
al- Deilami’s interview with Iran’s state TV is to be aired in Saturday night.
Saudi Arabia suspend all shipments of crude oil passing through the Straits of Bab El-Mandab after two giant oil tankers belonging to the Saudi National Shipping Company, each carrying two million barrels of crude oil, was attacked by the Houthi fighters in the Red Sea on Wednesday morning after crossing the Straits of Bab El-Mandeb.
On Thursday, Houthi fighters attacked Abu Dhabi’s international airport in the United Arab Emirates with a drone. In same day Saudi Arabia’s oil minister said that the country will suspend all shipments of crude oil passing through the Straits of Mandab until “navigation becomes safe”.
After Trump’s threatening Tweet against Iran and the response of President Hassan Rouhani, saying that his country will respond in the event of oil sanctions or US military attack not only in the Strait of Hormuz but also in other strategic areas of the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea, Yemen’s Houthi fighters’ operations in targeting Saudi oil tankers and stopping the transit of oil exports from the Strait of Bab-el-Mandab in the Red Sea was seen as a warning from Iran’s allies to the West.
“Yemeni political and military leaders have decided to target all oil and strategic areas of Saudi Arabia and the UAE hereafter,” a member of Ansar Allah’s (Houthi) Political Council Ibrahim al-Deilami told Iran’s state TV.
Yemen’s Houthi to UN: Stop the War or It Becomes Global
“Our factories and our facilities have been razed to the ground, and our ports and airports have been destroyed, so our enemies should be assured that the status quo will not be tolerated, and no point in these two countries will be safe henceforth. From now onward, we will attack their key military, political and economic zones, and the military bases at Jeddah and Riyadh airports will not be safe from our missiles and UAVs,” al-Deilami threatened.
General Abdullah al-Jafri, a spokesman for the Houthis also said the drone attack on Abu Dhabi airport showed the movement was capable of launching attacks against vital civilian infrastructure of the Saudi-Emirati-led military coalition battling the rebels in Yemen.
“Our attack on Abu Dhabi airport shows our forces are no paper tiger like our enemies claim,” Jafri told Al-Masirah TV on the phone.
Regarding attacks on Saudi Arabia and UAE’s oil exports as a new Yemen’s strategy to counteract the invaders, Al- Deilami warned foreign companies helping Saudi Arabia and the UAE economy.
“Oil wells and foreign companies helping enemies will not be safe either, and hence the equations of war will enter a new phase”, he told Iran’s state TV.
Answering a question on possible solutions to the Yemen war he laid stress on the fact that Yemen crisis would be solved only by putting an end to the Saudi aggression against Yemen and removing the country’s siege.
Expressing disappointment with the UN intervention to end the Yemeni crisis, he warned, “For the expediency of the United Nations we say that the continuation of the Yemeni war is not in the interest of the international community. And the international community must be aware that the continuation of war endangers the interest of many countries in Europe, Asia and elsewhere.”
