Mohammed Al Bukhaiti, a member of the Houthi political bureau, issued a direct warning to the United States on Monday. He stated that if Washington enters the war in Yemen, the group will deliver a "swift and painful response" targeting US interests across the region. This hardline stance comes as Saudi Arabia reportedly seeks American assistance to counter repeated Houthi attacks.
The threat lands on the heels of the deadliest attack on Saudi soil in over a decade. On Saturday, a strike on King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh killed 13 people and wounded hundreds, according to Saudi authorities. The blast tore through the departure lounge, where Muslim pilgrims in religious attire were waiting, sending flaming debris crashing through the terminal. Operations at the sprawling airport remained suspended on Monday, with a tense atmosphere gripping the capital.
President Donald Trump called the attack "not acceptable" and signaled a potential shift in US policy. He told reporters that the US was "going to look at" the possibility of joining Saudi strikes against the Houthis, a move that would mark a significant escalation. Trump had previously rebuffed requests for help from the kingdom, but the recent violence appears to have changed his calculus. "The Houthis are misbehaving very badly. They're misbehaving very badly. No good," he said on Monday.
The Saudi-led military coalition, which supports the Yemeni government against the Iran-backed Houthis, announced it had intercepted and destroyed two ballistic missiles launched towards Khamis Mushait, a city in the south of the kingdom. The coalition also reported intercepting a Houthi missile targeted at Riyadh on Monday night. The Houthis, meanwhile, claimed responsibility for targeting the airport and the Khamis Mushait base, stating their aim is to force Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to end the "aggression" against Yemen.
The conflict has already disrupted regional aviation and travel. Etihad Airways cancelled all flights to and from Riyadh until next week, while Gulf Air suspended its Riyadh routes until Saturday. The US embassy in Saudi Arabia urged its citizens to "take extreme caution" and required government employees to obtain authorization before using any airport in the kingdom. The next test for the region will be whether Trump follows through on his threat to involve US military assets, a decision that could draw the world's most powerful military into the Yemeni civil war.