Yemen’s UN-recognised government has accused Iran of violating its sovereignty after an Iranian aircraft carrying a Houthi delegation back from Tehran was forced away from Sana’a airport and landed instead in Hodeidah.
Abdullah al-Alimi, vice-president in the Saudi-backed government, said Iranian flights to and from Yemen were unacceptable and alleged that the aircraft were being used to move equipment for the Houthi movement. The claim could not be independently verified.
The dispute followed Yemeni government airstrikes, supported by Saudi Arabia, on Houthi-controlled Sana’a airport. The strikes were launched in protest at Iranian efforts to send a plane to the capital carrying members of the Houthi delegation returning from the funeral of Iran’s late supreme leader, Ali Khamenei.
The plane eventually landed in Hodeidah, a Red Sea port under Houthi control. The Houthis then fired missiles at Saudi Arabia, breaking a four-year truce in the conflict between the kingdom and the Iran-aligned armed group.
An emergency session of the UN security council heard calls for both sides to de-escalate. A senior Houthi negotiator defended the group’s response, saying: “Defending oneself, the homeland and the people is a religious, national, moral and humanitarian duty, and a legitimate right affirmed by Islamic law and international law. The aggressor is the real wrongdoer.”
Yemen has been fragmented by war since 2015, when the Houthis seized Sana’a and forced the internationally recognised government to relocate to Aden with Saudi support.
Al-Alimi said the Houthis were weaker than in previous years and that any settlement must restore state control over weapons and institutions. “We are ready if the Houthis impose war,” he said.
