Foreign Minister Afrah al-Zouba raises Taiz siege and Aden airport attacks with US official in Manama
Yemen Herald News 
MANAMA, Bahrain — Yemen’s foreign minister raised the Houthi siege of Taiz and attacks on Aden’s airport with a senior US diplomat at a security summit here Friday.
Afrah al-Zouba met Donald Blome, the US assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs, on the sidelines of the Manama Dialogue 2026.
The account of the meeting rests on a report by Saba, the state news agency of Yemen’s internationally recognised government. No independent confirmation of what was said has been published, and no US readout of the meeting has been issued.
Al-Zouba set out what she described as the Houthi movement’s military escalation, its continued siege of Taiz and its restrictions on humanitarian supplies, the agency said.
She also raised repeated attacks on Aden International Airport.
The two discussed developments in Yemen and the wider region, support for the government and the strengthening of state institutions, according to Saba.
Al-Zouba asked for greater humanitarian and economic support, the agency said. She said it would help the government meet financial pressures and keep essential services running.
She called for international backing to be turned into practical measures to restore state institutions and extend government control across the country.
Both sides discussed efforts to stop arms smuggling to the Houthis, Saba said. They also discussed threats to shipping in the Red Sea and the Bab al-Mandab strait.
Blome restated that the United States designates the Houthis a foreign terrorist organisation, according to the Yemeni account. He repeated US support for the government and said Washington would keep coordinating with regional and international partners.
Blome’s remarks are reported only through that account. Yemen Herald could not independently verify them.
The United States redesignated Ansarallah, the Houthi movement’s formal name, as a foreign terrorist organisation in a notice published in the Federal Register on March 5, 2025. The designation followed an executive order signed that January.
The European Parliament adopted a resolution on Oct. 22 calling on the European Union to add the Houthis to its terrorist list. The text also addressed the humanitarian and political situation in Yemen.
A parliament resolution does not bind EU governments. Yemen’s government welcomed the vote and has urged member states to act on it.
The Manama Dialogue is an annual regional security summit convened by the International Institute for Strategic Studies. The 2026 edition, the 22nd, runs from Oct. 30 to Nov. 1.
Organisers said this year’s agenda centres on the regional effects of the conflict involving Iran, the Gulf Daily News reported.
It was not the first meeting between the two officials this year.
Yemen’s foreign ministry said al-Zouba met Blome in New York on Sept. 24, on the sidelines of the 81st session of the UN General Assembly.
At that meeting she described Houthi escalation as “a strategic threat that goes beyond Yemen’s borders”, according to the ministry’s account.
She linked it to Iranian efforts to press the global economy through Bab al-Mandab, the ministry said.
Yemen’s ambassador to the United States, Jamila Rajaa, and the minister’s political adviser, Ambassador Marwan Noman, attended the September meeting, the ministry said. Kyle Liston, the US deputy assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs, attended for the American side.
Al-Zouba took the foreign ministry after Shaya al-Zindani, who had held the post, was appointed prime minister in January.
Aden’s airport has been struck several times this month. Houthi forces fired two ballistic missiles at it on Oct. 7, Al Jazeera and Arab News reported.
The government said two more missiles were fired at the airport on Oct. 16.
A further strike was reported on Oct. 28. A Houthi spokesman said the target was a Saudi cargo plane, the Washington Times reported.
Yemen’s transport minister later announced that operations at the airport had resumed, Yemen Monitor reported.
Taiz lost both of its land routes in early October. The al-Houban crossing closed and Houthi forces took al-Turbah by Oct. 4, Al Jazeera reported.
The United Nations warned on Oct. 20 that road closures and insecurity were blocking supplies into the city.
The World Health Organization said two days later that 42 health facilities in Taiz faced severe shortages of fuel, oxygen, medicine and medical supplies.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reported displacement across Yemen above 281,000 by late October.
The Houthi movement disputes the government’s account of the siege. Abdul-Malik al-Houthi has said the restrictions do not target civilian supplies, according to Al Jazeera.
The United Nations says more than 22 million people in Yemen need humanitarian assistance, according to the humanitarian needs and response plan published in March.
The plan puts 18.3 million people in acute food insecurity and records 5.2 million people displaced inside the country.
It counts more than 2.2 million children under five as acutely malnourished, of whom 516,157 are severely malnourished.
The plan seeks 2.16 billion dollars to reach 12 million people.
Fighting widened after government forces launched an offensive they called Dawn of Yemen earlier this year.
The fighting has widened beyond Yemen’s borders. Houthi forces fired a missile that Saudi air defences downed near Riyadh on Oct. 7, Al Jazeera reported, and struck a Saudi airport days later.
Al Jazeera asked in an analysis published on Oct. 10 whether the country had returned to full-scale war.
Al-Zouba told Asharq Al-Awsat in an interview published this month that Yemen would not be an Iranian pawn.
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