UN and EU leaders voiced shock and anger on Sunday following an attack by Yemen’s Houthi rebels on Riyadh airport in Saudi Arabia and warned against an escalation in the deadly conflict. Several embassies have issued warnings to their citizens to avoid the area.
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UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said he was “deeply shocked” by Saturday’s attack on Riyadh‘s airport, which killed 12 people and wounded over 300, according to aviation authorities.
“Attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure are a violation of international law. These attacks must cease immediately,” Guterres said in a statement.
EU chief Ursula von der Leyen called the attack a “dangerous escalation” and said the Iran-backed group must halt strikes on civilian targets.
“These attacks by Iran’s proxies are pushing the region into a spiral of violence. They are destabilizing crucial global transport and energy nodes with shockwave sent through the world,” von der Leyen said.
“These murderous attacks at civilians must stop at once,” she said, adding the EU stands in “solidarity with Saudi Arabia“.
Lightning offensive
Saturday’s attack, the deadliest on Saudi soil in more than a decade, was a sharp escalation in the Yemen war, where Riyadh backs the internationally recognised government against the Houthis, who captured swathes of Red Sea coastline in a lightning offensive last month.
The strike came in a week when the group intensified its attacks on the Saudi capital’s King Khalid International Airport, where three people were also killed on Thursday, as well as other key targets in the world’s largest crude oil exporter.
While the Houthis stopped short of claiming the strike, they threatened new attacks on the kingdom’s airports, except for the holy cities of Mecca and Medina, warning passengers not to travel.
“The airports and airspace are exposed to targeting and constitute a theatre of operations for our forces,” military spokesman Yahya Saree wrote on social media platform X.
Four Saudi citizens were among those killed on Saturday, as well as two Bangladeshis, one American, one Egyptian, one Jordanian, one Syrian, one Palestinian and one Sudanese, Saudi Arabia’s civil aviation authority said.
It said some of the 309 wounded were in serious condition.
The US, Canadian, German, British and Spanish embassies in Saudi Arabia warned their citizens to avoid the airport and the surrounding areas.
France’s embassy earlier on Friday urged French nationals to take “utmost care” in Saudi Arabia because of “strikes in recent days by the Houthis”. It also warned French citizens not to record images of zones that were hit, nor share any online.
On Sunday, France condemned the “heinous attack” by Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis a day earlier on Riyadh’s international airport and stressed “total solidarity” with Saudi Arabia.
France, which is already lending troops and military equipment to Saudi Arabia, “will continue to remain by its side in its defence of its territory and its infrastructure”, a foreign ministry statement said, calling on the Houthis to cease their attacks.
The French foreign ministry said a French woman was among those hurt.
The US embassy in Saudi Arabia on Sunday said staff working in the kingdom would now be required to request permission to use airports in the cities of Dammam and Jeddah, days after a similar order was issued for Riyadh.
‘Appalling act of terror’
The EU’s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas denounced the attack as an “appalling act of terror”.
“There can be no justification for indiscriminate attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure,” she posted.
Kallas said she was in close contact with her Saudi counterpart and insisted enhancing cooperation between an EU naval mission in the Red Sea and a Riyadh-led maritime coalition was “vital”.
German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said he “firmly condemns” the attack, which he described as “a terrorist act against Saudi Arabia and civil aviation”.
“Our thoughts are with the victims and I send my sincere condolences to their loved ones,” he wrote on X.
Capture of Mocha marks turning point in Yemen war, with ripples across Red Sea
Meanwhile, UK Defence Minister Wes Streeting said the attacks were “contemptible” and a “dangerous escalation”.
“What we’ve seen overnight is a dangerous escalation and I’m afraid an increasing pattern of behaviour from the Houthis that’s targeting civilian sites in Saudi Arabia,” he told Sky News.
“This is completely contemptible action and it’s one of the reasons why the UK is providing support to Saudi Arabia in the form of air defences, but also air-to-air refuelling,” for Saudi jets to help the country defend itself against Houthi strikes, he said.
“We want to see an end to this conflict. It cannot be right that the Houthis are attacking civilian targets in this way,” he added.
US President Donald Trump said the attack was “not acceptable” and that he was looking at joining Saudi strikes against the Houthis in response.
“We may. We’re going to look at it. We just found out about the recent attack, so we’ll make a decision,” he told reporters at the White House.
