Yemen Leaves Riyadh Grounded
Yemen Leaves Riyadh Grounded
TEHRAN — Riyadh’s airport has been hit five times since Tuesday, October 6, by Saudi authorities’ own count, and the government cannot promise a sixth will not come. On Saturday, a missile struck King Khalid International Airport, killing at least 13 people and wounding more than 300, according to the kingdom. On Sunday, another projectile set Terminal 4 on fire. On Monday, the Saudi civil aviation authority extended the shutdown.
A wealthy kingdom that spent a decade selling itself as the Persian Gulf’s safe harbor cannot keep its capital’s runway open.
Cirium reported that 99.7 percent of scheduled flights at King Khalid were canceled on Sunday. Flightradar24 showed no aircraft over a city of roughly eight million. Lufthansa Group grounded its Riyadh service through October 16, Air France-KLM through the end of the month, and Etihad stretched its Saudi cancellations again.
The FAA warned American carriers about Saudi airspace, and Washington, London, Berlin, and Madrid told their citizens to stay away from the airport. Riyadh’s schools moved online. The metro stopped serving two airport stations.
The defenses are thin. Saudi officials have told the Wall Street Journal they are running low on interceptors.
The kingdom is shuffling air defense batteries between palaces and increasingly vulnerable energy sites and desperately searching the world for more.
Sanaa’s equation
Brigadier General Yahya Saree laid out the terms in his October 11 statement. Yemeni forces, he said, carried out four operations in 24 hours: three waves against King Khalid, a direct hit on King Fahd Airport in Dammam, and fires at Aramco’s Shedgum and Tanajib facilities in the Eastern Province.
He told airlines, airport staff, and travelers that Saudi airports and airspace are unsafe, exempting only Mecca and Medina, and put responsibility for any failed interception on Riyadh.
Sanaa’s rule is “airport for airport, blockade for blockade, and escalation for escalation.”
Ansarallah did not invent this logic out of a vacuum. There were documented Saudi strikes on Sanaa airport on July 13, with three munitions landing on its only working runway. That airport is the front door for aid to the area where most Yemenis live.
Saree said Saudi jets flew 124 raids in a single day, bringing the total of this escalation to 2,058. The World Food Programme says three-quarters of families in parts of Yemen are going hungry.
Eleven years of bombing and port restrictions taught Yemenis what a closed airport means. Riyadh is learning it now. Ansarallah’s warnings were repeated and ignored.
Washington stays out
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman asked for urgent American help, according to multiple news reports in American media outlets.
He pledged around $1 trillion in U.S. “investment” this year and was embraced at the White House. What he has received in his war on Yemen so far is intelligence, targeting support, and military advisers.
Trump called the airport attack “very bad” and said of joining Saudi strikes: “We may. We’re going to look at it.” Secretary of State Marco Rubio offered “condolences.” Condolences do not intercept missiles.
The reasons for restraint are plain. The war on Iran has already consumed American munitions and attention, closed and disrupted the Strait of Hormuz, and pushed fuel prices high. Midterm elections arrive on November 3, and a Republican Party facing angry drivers has no appetite for another unwinnable quagmire.
Trump himself has said that the Yemenis contacted Washington to say they do not want to fight the United States. The American president certainly remembers the high costs of “Operation Rough Rider” from March to May 2025, when a massive multi-week air assault spectacularly failed to blunt Sanaa’s strategic capabilities.
Ansarallah announced a maritime blockade of Saudi Arabia in July and has the range to successfully strike American ships in the Red Sea. It has not fired on one.
So far it has held back, as Riyadh realizes that Washington dreads the cost of a wider regional war far more than it dreads a weakened Saudi ally.
The bill for Vision 2030
The World Petroleum Council Energy Congress opened in Riyadh under security, but BP pulled out, and the chief executives of ExxonMobil, TotalEnergies, Shell and Chevron vanished from the program.
The Finance Ministry expects the economy to shrink 3.6 percent this year. Foreign investment fell in each of the first two quarters.
Riyadh dropped the 2029 Asian Winter Games in January, and Neom and other showpieces sit stalled or under review. An effective attack on the East-West pipeline in September cut the kingdom’s route around Hormuz.
Vision 2030 asks visitors and investors to believe Riyadh is safe. A shuttered airport answers that question for them.
Expo 2030 and the 2034 World Cup now carry a plain logistical doubt, and so do the data centers meant to make Saudi Arabia an “AI hub.” Billions spent on golf, football, and festivals sought to buy an image, and Yemen's punishing strikes have thoroughly damaged it.
Furthermore, as the kingdom prepares to host the 2027 AFC Asian Cup across venues in Riyadh, Jeddah, and Khobar, the unfolding security crisis and shuttered transport infrastructure cast an immediate shadow over the tournament, turning what was intended as a grand showcase of soft power into a stark reminder of Saudi Arabia’s extreme vulnerability.
MBS’ war
Mohammed bin Salman launched the war on Yemen in 2015 expecting victory after mere weeks. He got a stalemate, a 2022 truce and, this summer, a resumed war he is losing.
When Ansarallah pushed down the Red Sea coast in August, Riyadh held back its air power, and Mokha fell. The coalition’s “Dawn of Yemen” counteroffensive, with 100 jets in its opening phase, has not stopped missiles reaching Riyadh, Dammam, Abha, Jazan and Najran. Sanaa has released footage of Saudi-backed fighters surrendering.
The crown prince now moves between bunkered palaces under a handpicked guard, the WSJ reports. His last public appearance was October 6, when he gave blood for a donation drive.
Saudi officials are quietly weighing a diplomatic exit. Sanaa has already named its price: stop the aggression and lift the siege.
source: tehrantimes.com