Yemen’s foreign minister briefs Saudi counterpart on Houthi attacks and Taiz siege
Yemen Herald News 
ADEN, Yemen — Yemen’s foreign minister briefed her Saudi counterpart by telephone on Houthi attacks on Aden’s airport and the siege of Taiz, the two governments said.
Afrah al-Zouba, Yemen’s minister of foreign affairs and expatriates, placed the call to Prince Faisal bin Farhan bin Abdullah, the Saudi minister of foreign affairs, on Thursday.
The Yemeni account was issued by Saba, the state news agency of the internationally recognised government. The Saudi Press Agency published its own account the same day, and Arab News and Asharq Al-Awsat carried it.
Al-Zouba set out what she described as Houthi attacks on Aden International Airport, on camps for displaced people and on state institutions, according to Saba.
She raised the siege of Taiz and restrictions on supplies of food, water, medicine and fuel, the agency said.
She called for international action to protect civilian infrastructure and to secure humanitarian access.
Al-Zouba condemned Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia and said the Kingdom’s security was tied to Yemen’s, Saba reported.
She thanked Saudi Arabia for political, economic, humanitarian and development support, and for its treatment of Yemenis living in the Kingdom.
Prince Faisal restated Saudi support for Yemen’s Presidential Leadership Council, its government and its people, according to the same account.
He reaffirmed what Saba described as the Kingdom’s commitment to Yemen’s unity, sovereignty and territorial integrity.
The Saudi account was shorter. The state news agency said the ministers reviewed developments in Yemen and ways to strengthen the government’s ability to carry out its responsibilities.
That version also recorded discussion of continued Houthi attacks and of efforts to restore security and stability, Arab News reported on Thursday.
Asharq Al-Awsat reported the same day that the call covered bilateral relations and support for the government. Neither Saudi account gave an outcome or a figure.
Both ministers said coordination should be strengthened to address shared threats and to ease the suffering of Yemenis, according to Saba.
The Houthis have not responded publicly to the call. The group disputes the government’s characterisation of its conduct in Taiz and around Aden.
The call followed a strike on the airport. Two ballistic missiles hit Aden International Airport on Wednesday, causing civilian injuries and material damage, said Col. Majid al-Nuzaily, spokesperson for Yemen’s armed forces.
Al-Nuzaily gave no figure for the injured. He called the strike part of a recurring series of attacks against civilian and vital infrastructure.
Arab News reported the strike on Wednesday and described it as the sixth on the airport in a matter of days. Al Arabiya and Gulf News carried their own accounts.
Yemen’s transport ministry condemned the attack and said the strikes posed a serious threat to civil aviation safety.
Abdullah al-Saadi, Yemen’s permanent representative to the United Nations, wrote to the president of the Security Council about those attacks, the government said. A copy went to the UN secretary-general.
More than 281,000 people have been forced from their homes in Yemen since August, according to UN figures released on Wednesday.
The UN refugee agency put the number displaced since the war reignited in July at more than 250,000, in a statement on Oct. 20. Taiz accounted for 76 percent of departures in that count.
The World Food Programme said about 800,000 people had been cut off from food assistance in Taiz and other affected areas, Arab News reported.
Human Rights Watch has said the siege of Taiz could amount to the war crime of using starvation as a method of warfare.
Saudi Arabia has been a party to the conflict since 2015, when it assembled a military coalition on the side of the government.
Rashad al-Alimi, chairman of the Presidential Leadership Council, launched a package of Saudi aid projects at the headquarters of KSrelief in Riyadh on Oct. 27. Abdullah al-Rabeeah, the centre’s supervisor general, received him.
The package is expected to benefit more than 3.4 million people and includes 250,000 food baskets, 25,000 emergency shelter kits and 17,500 tents for displaced families, according to KSrelief.
It also covers more than 16 million litres of water in Lahj, Taiz and Aden, and 5,000 additional food baskets for Taiz.
The projects also include 232 solar-powered homes for displaced families in Hajjah governorate and nearly 10,000 containers of infant formula for Taiz.
KSrelief set out 100 Saudi volunteer programmes expected to reach 265,000 people, covering surgery, cataract and cardiac treatment, education and vocational training.
Al-Rabeeah said KSrelief had carried out 1,238 projects in Yemen worth more than $4.8 billion, and that Saudi Arabia had provided more than $29 billion in aid to the country over the past decade.
The Houthis have struck targets inside Saudi Arabia with growing frequency this month, according to Arab News. Fighting has intensified around Taiz and along Yemen’s western coast.
Saudi Arabia hosts a large Yemeni expatriate population, and al-Zouba raised their treatment during the call, Saba said.
The Presidential Leadership Council was formed in 2022 and holds the executive authority that Prince Faisal said the Kingdom continues to back.
Phone calls between the two foreign ministries are routine, and neither side said the conversation produced a new commitment.
The foreign ministry and the Presidential Leadership Council are both seated in Aden.
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