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The UAE has condemned in the strongest terms the attacks by the Houthi group on King Khalid International Airport in Saudi Arabia, saying they constitute a flagrant violation of the sovereignty of the Kingdom and a threat to its security and stability.
In a statement, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) reaffirmed the UAE’s full solidarity with Saudi Arabia and its support for all measures aimed at safeguarding the Kingdom’s security and stability. The UAE expressed its sincere condolences and sympathy to the families of the victims, as well as its wishes for a speedy recovery for all the injured.
The targeting of King Khalid Airport in Riyadh resulted in the deaths of 12 people of Saudi, Egyptian, Jordanian, Syrian, Palestinian, Sudanese, American, and Bangladeshi nationalities, and injuries to 309 people, according to Saudi civial aviation authorities. Some property at the airport was damaged as well.
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Following the attack, the Saudi-led Coalition fighting the Iran-backed Houthi group in Yemen accused the Houthis of carrying out the targeting and vowed to respond “decisively”. The attack constitutes “a full-fledged war crime according to the Customary International Humanitarian Law” the coalition’s official spokesman Major General Turki Al-Maliki said.
Operations at King Khalid International Airport were temporarily suspended, the Saudi civial aviation authority said. The attack is the third on the Saudi aviation hub in Riyadh in a week. Two previous attacks on Riyadh’s international airport earlier in the week had killed four people and caused heavy damage to a Saudi commercial plane parked on the tarmac.
A day after the attack, Yemen’s Houthis warned airlines, travellers and airport workers to stay away from Saudi airports.
Source: Khaleej Times