A week ago, the Yemeni Armed Forces targeted the runway at Sanaa International Airport to prevent an aircraft operated by Iran’s Mahan Air from landing after departing Tehran. The legitimate government said the flight violated Yemen’s airspace by operating outside the state’s legal framework despite repeated warnings that any unauthorized breach would be intercepted. The incident followed what the government described as the Houthis’ continued rejection of initiatives aimed at easing civilians’ suffering and restoring civilian flights through the national carrier. The government said it has sought to reopen Sanaa airport under legal state supervision, as at other government-run Yemeni airports, while accusing the Houthis of insisting on flights between Sanaa and Tehran operated by Mahan Air, which has faced international sanctions over allegations of providing logistical support to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). The government said that a recent Mahan Air flight carrying a Houthi delegation switched off its tracking signals while crossing Yemeni airspace to conceal the transport of IRGC and Hezbollah personnel, military equipment, weapons, and communications devices, in violation of relevant UN Security Council resolutions. Yemen’s Information Minister Moammar al-Eryani told Asharq Al-Awsat last week that the government had exhausted political, diplomatic, and legal avenues and proposed practical initiatives to avoid further escalation, but the Houthis rejected them all. Instead, they sought, together with Tehran, to turn Sanaa airport into a permanent gateway for Iranian flights operating outside state authority, he stressed. Observers say the Houthis’ conduct reflects a broader effort to advance Tehran’s regional agenda by drawing Yemen into regional conflicts and turning the country into a military and political platform threatening international shipping and global energy supplies. Mutlaq al-Mutairi, a professor of political communication at King Saud University, told Asharq Al-Awsat that the Houthis’ use of Yemeni territory for objectives beyond national interests has deepened the country’s isolation and undermined prospects for a political settlement, worsening the suffering of ordinary Yemenis. Al-Mutairi said the Houthis’ rejection of government proposals to resume civilian flights through the national carrier undermines their “misleading” narrative that the airport closure is responsible for civilians’ hardships. Instead, the group has used the airport issue as a political bargaining chip while promoting a false blockade narrative through incendiary statements and false slogans to mobilize Yemenis for conflicts that serve only Iran’s regional project, he said. He added that the continued flow of food, medicine, and petroleum products through Yemeni ports weakens Houthi claims of a comprehensive blockade. In his view, the crisis stems from the group’s decision to take up arms against the state, undermine its institutions with Iranian backing, exploit public suffering, damage infrastructure, and target oil exports instead of pursuing peace. Saudi Arabia has rejected accusations by the Houthis’ military spokesman that the Kingdom was blockading Yemen and restricting maritime shipping. In a statement Monday, the Saudi Foreign Ministry said Houthi actions had worsened humanitarian and economic conditions, particularly in areas under their control, while rejecting every initiative to resume flights from Sanaa airport, including the latest Jordanian proposal. The ministry said that Saudi Arabia has worked with Yemen’s legitimate government to ease humanitarian suffering by supporting the state budget, funding development projects, supplying fuel for power plants, and backing UN-led peace efforts, including the roadmap accepted by the Yemeni government but never formally endorsed by the Houthis. Maj. Gen. Turki al-Malki, spokesman for the Saudi-led Coalition to Restore Legitimacy in Yemen, likewise described the Houthi blockade narrative as “misleading.” He said more than 300 commercial vessels entered the ports of Hodeidah, Salif, and Ras Isa during the first half of 2026 carrying food, fuel, construction materials, and other goods. Al-Malki added that claims of closed ports and airports were part of Houthi misinformation, saying the group was responsible for the closure of Sanaa International Airport, the destruction of Yemenia Airways aircraft, and the rejection of every initiative to resume flights.
