Bahrain backs Saudi position on Yemen and condemns Houthi attacks on the kingdom
Yemen Herald News 
MANAMA, Bahrain — Bahrain’s foreign ministry said on Tuesday it fully supports Saudi Arabia’s position on Yemen and condemned what it called continued Houthi attacks on the kingdom.
The ministry said it backed Saudi efforts made through the Coalition to Support Legitimacy in Yemen.
Those efforts were directed at supporting Yemen’s Presidential Leadership Council and the internationally recognised government, the statement said.
The ministry listed the aims as ending what it described as the Houthi coup, restoring the state and its institutions, removing the threat of terrorism and reaching a comprehensive political settlement based on the three references.
The three references are the Gulf Cooperation Council initiative and its implementation mechanism, the outcomes of Yemen’s National Dialogue Conference, and the relevant Security Council resolutions. The Yemeni government and the GCC have used the formulation for years.
The statement was issued on the ministry’s account on X and carried by the Bahrain News Agency.
The account of the statement rests on the Bahraini foreign ministry’s own announcement. Yemen Herald found no independent confirmation of the ministry’s characterisation of the attacks it listed.
The ministry said the attacks had targeted civilians and civilian and economic facilities.
It said they had struck the holy cities of Makkah and Madinah, and Riyadh, as well as Saudi vessels in the southern Red Sea and the Bab al-Mandab Strait. The strait links the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden and carries a large share of the world’s seaborne trade.
Bahrain reaffirmed its solidarity with Saudi Arabia, the ministry said. It said it supported all measures the kingdom takes to protect its security, its sovereignty and the safety of its citizens and residents.
Those measures fall under Article 51 of the UN Charter, which sets out the right of self-defence, the statement said.
Article 51 preserves the right of individual or collective self-defence if an armed attack occurs against a UN member, until the Security Council has acted.
Saudi security is an integral part of the security of Bahrain and of the Gulf Cooperation Council states under the Joint Defense Agreement, the ministry said.
The council’s six members are Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
It called on the Security Council, and on its permanent members in particular, to end the attacks and the threats to maritime navigation and energy supplies.
The ministry asked the council to ensure full implementation of its resolutions, naming resolutions 2216 and 2817.
Resolution 2216 was adopted on April 14, 2015, by 14 votes to none, with Russia abstaining.
It demanded that the Houthis withdraw from areas they had seized and relinquish weapons taken from military and security institutions. It also imposed sanctions on individuals the council said were undermining Yemen’s stability.
Resolution 2817 was adopted this year by 13 votes to none, with China and Russia abstaining. It condemns Iranian attacks on Gulf states and demands that they stop.
That resolution was passed during a conflict that followed Israeli and American airstrikes on Iran on Feb. 28. It covered attacks on seven Gulf states, including strikes on residential areas and civilian objects.
It also called for an end to threats and actions aimed at interfering with maritime trade, and to support for proxy groups. Its text does not mention Yemen, the Houthis or Red Sea shipping.
Bahrain has taken part in the Saudi-led coalition since it intervened in Yemen in March 2015. The Presidential Leadership Council it named in the statement was formed in April 2022 and is chaired by Rashad al-Alimi.
The statement followed a series of exchanges between the Houthis and Saudi Arabia.
The Saudi-led coalition said a drone struck the Taibah electricity distribution station in Madinah on Sept. 29 at 5:11 a.m. The station serves the Prophet’s Mosque.
One transformer was taken out of service and the wider electricity network was not affected, the coalition said. It reported no casualties and attributed the attack to the Houthis.
The Houthis denied carrying out that attack.
Bahrain condemned the Madinah strike on Oct. 2 and described it as a dangerous escalation.
The United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Jordan, Qatar, Sudan, Turkey and Pakistan also condemned it, as did the Arab League and the secretary-general of the Gulf Cooperation Council.
The Al-Azhar Institute in Egypt also issued a condemnation. Pakistan’s statement came on Oct. 2, the same day as Bahrain’s.
Yahya Saree, the Houthi military spokesman, said on Oct. 4 that the group had fired ballistic missiles and drones at an Aramco facility in Riyadh, and that fires broke out there.
Turki al-Maliki, the spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition, called Houthi accounts of strikes on Riyadh misleading.
The coalition said it had carried out 97 targeting operations against the group over the preceding day.
A truce agreed in 2022 collapsed in July, and fighting escalated from Aug. 6. The Yemeni government has since announced operations to retake territory held by the group.
That truce was brokered by the United Nations and took effect in April 2022.
The Houthis seized the port of Mocha and islands in the Bab al-Mandab Strait in mid-September. The war began when they took Sanaa in 2014.
The ministry gave no dates for the attacks it listed in Tuesday’s statement.
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