Saudi Arabia’s Council of Ministers denounced what it called a deliberate campaign of attacks by Yemen’s Houthi militia against civilians inside the kingdom, on Tuesday, 15 September, asserting Riyadh’s right to defend its territory, its people and its economic infrastructure.
Meeting in Jeddah under the chairmanship of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the cabinet said the kingdom’s security and the protection of its resources were not subject to negotiation, according to the Saudi Press Agency. Ministers grounded the kingdom’s response in the United Nations Charter and international law.
The crown prince also briefed the cabinet on a telephone call from Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif of Pakistan and on his meeting with Brad Cooper, the commander of United States Central Command. Both conversations, the agency said, covered the deteriorating regional picture.
The session followed a night of missile and drone strikes that Saudi authorities said wounded 13 people. Turki al-Malki, the spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen, said in a statement early Tuesday that the attacks on Khamis Mushait, Abha and Taif on 14 September caused injuries ranging from minor to moderate and damaged seven houses and two vehicles.
Civil defense authorities issued early warning alerts across the west and south of the country, including for Jeddah, Jazan, Yanbu, Mecca and AlUla, before announcing that the danger had passed.
The barrage is the latest in an intensifying series, as an attack on 9 September wounded 73 people, among them women and children, in several Saudi towns and cities. On Friday, 11 September, the kingdom temporarily halted operations on its East-West Pipeline after drone strikes in the Riyadh and Medina regions — a closure that removes a key bypass around the Strait of Hormuz.
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