Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi group on Friday said it conducted yet another attack on a Saudi Aramco facility in Riyadh, in an attack comprising six armed drones, Reuters and the Saudi Press Agency report.
Saudi Arabia’s state news agency said the attack took place at 6:05 a.m. local time, causing a fire that was later controlled with no impact on oil supplies or derivatives. There were no casualties, it said, quoting an Energy Ministry spokesman, Bloomberg reports.
U.S. Special envoy for Yemen Tim Lenderking in Riyadh.
The frequency of Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia has increased in recent months, causing a persistent threat to global oil supplies and placing the Kingdom on high alert to protect its civilians and critical infrastructure.
Yahya Saree, the spokesman for the Houthi armed forces, said the attacks would continue as long as the “aggression and blockade” go on, Bloomberg reports.
The increase in attacks come as the Biden administration hopes to bring an end to the conflict in Yemen. As Hussein Ibish writes in Bloomberg this week, “Now that they are in power and Biden is actively seeking solutions, the Democrats are having to reassess their previous analysis of the problem. Biden’s special envoy on Yemen, the veteran diplomat Tim Lenderking, a highly respected veteran U.S. diplomat, is confronting the stark reality that ending the war isn’t about convincing the Saudis to go — they’ve wanted to, for several years.
“The main challenge is convincing the Houthis to allow the Saudis to leave on reasonable terms…Having expended enormous resources in Yemen, Riyadh will want to leave behind some sort of power-sharing agreement between the Houthis and the internationally recognized government led by President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi. The Saudis also need guarantees that the Houthis will cease cross-border raids and rocket attacks.
“But the Houthis, a Shiite militia that overthrew the Hadi government in 2015, have never shown any serious interest in peace,” Ibish writes.
