US embassy says Yemen and Saudi Arabia have the right to defend themselves against Houthis
Yemen Herald News 
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — The US embassy to Yemen said the internationally recognised government has the right to defend its people and end the Houthi movement’s capacity for terrorism.
The embassy said the Houthis started the conflict and must bear the consequences of what it called their aggression.
It reaffirmed that the Aden-based government is the sole legitimate government in the country.
The statement said Saudi Arabia has the same right to defend its territory and its citizens, and to support the Yemeni government in what the embassy described as efforts to end Houthi terrorism.
The account of the statement rests on that single source. It was carried by the Yemeni outlets Yemen Monitor and 26 September Net, both relaying the embassy’s own remarks, and Yemen Herald has seen no independent confirmation of the full text.
The wording is the embassy’s. The Houthi movement rejects the characterisation and says its attacks answer Saudi strikes on areas it holds.
The statement followed Houthi attacks on southern Saudi Arabia on Tuesday.
Major General Turki al-Malki, spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition, said the attacks struck Abha, Khamis Mushait, Jazan and Najran and injured at least 73 people, among them women and children.
Saudi Arabia’s energy ministry said the attacks set fires at several oil installations and utility sites across the kingdom’s southern provinces.
Yahya Saree, the Houthi military spokesman, said the group targeted energy sites operated by Aramco in the south with drones and ballistic missiles. He called it a broad operation.
Saree said the attacks answered recent Saudi strikes on Houthi-held areas.
The Houthis said Saudi aircraft and cruise missiles hit al-Jawf, al-Bayda, Marib and Taiz on Monday. They accused Saudi Arabia of striking a prison in al-Hazm, the capital of al-Jawf, killing seven people and wounding seven others.
Riyadh did not immediately comment on that account. The Houthis also said they had shot down Saudi reconnaissance drones over al-Jawf and al-Bayda.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has linked the attacks to Iran.
Rubio said the Houthis are in many respects “agents and proxies for the Iranians”, adding: “I think Iran is clearly behind some of these attacks.”
He said the United States keeps a defensive military relationship with Saudi Arabia and is watching events closely, and that the situation had been running for some time.
Rubio said ground operations were under way in Yemen, and that Yemeni forces were confronting the Houthis and thwarting some attempts to advance.
Yemen’s government announced counteroffensives against Houthi-held positions on Monday.
Rashad al-Alimi, chairman of the Presidential Leadership Council, said government forces had made gains in al-Jawf, al-Bayda, Taiz and Hodeidah.
“Our armed forces will continue to carry out their constitutional duty until state institutions are restored and their authority extends over the entire territory of Yemen,” al-Alimi said in a statement.
Major General Samir al-Sabri, the deputy defence minister, said in comments aired on state television that the government had resolved to retake Sanaa.
Majid al-Nuzaili, a spokesman for government-aligned forces, said the aim of the offensive was to restore Sanaa as a capital for all Yemenis.
The Houthis said they repelled a government advance towards the al-Labanat mountains in al-Jawf and inflicted casualties. Mohammed al-Farah, a Houthi official, said the group fired ballistic missiles at reinforcements in the province.
On Sunday, the government said its warplanes had struck Houthi positions in Hodeidah, Marib and al-Jawf.
Government-aligned forces also reported a ground push towards the al-Labanat mountains, rocket attacks on Yatma and advances towards Dhi Na’im district in al-Bayda.
Battlefield claims by both sides have not been independently verified.
The World Health Organization said on Monday that at least 728 people had been killed or wounded in Yemen since 23 August, most of them in Taiz and along the western coast.
It said about 21,000 people, some 3,000 families, had been displaced from Taiz alone since Thursday.
The fighting is the heaviest since a UN-brokered truce halted large-scale combat in 2022, after eight years of war.
The Houthis declared a blockade on Saudi shipping in July. Hostilities resumed that month after an Iranian aircraft tried to land in Sanaa without Saudi authorisation, followed by strikes on Sanaa airport and Houthi retaliation.
The Houthis have since pushed towards government-held areas near al-Makha and territory bordering the Bab al-Mandab strait.
Southern Saudi Arabia holds part of the kingdom’s oil infrastructure, including the Jazan refinery, which can process 400,000 barrels of crude a day.
Iran’s restrictions on the Strait of Hormuz have pushed Saudi Arabia to lean on its Red Sea export route. Between March and mid-July, Saudi seaborne crude exports through Bab al-Mandab ran eight times higher than in the same period of 2025.
About 4.1 million barrels of crude oil and petroleum products passed through the strait each day on average in 2024, about 5 per cent of the global total.
Ahmed Nagi, a senior analyst at the International Crisis Group, said the Houthi push towards the west coast carried a maritime aim as well as a territorial one.
“The Houthis have already linked their military campaign to the Red Sea and the shipping routes around Bab al-Mandeb,” Nagi said in remarks to Al Jazeera.
Nagi said the economic situation was likely to worsen, adding further pressure on humanitarian conditions.
The US mission to Yemen has operated from Riyadh since its Sanaa embassy suspended operations in 2015.
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