The Houthi strike on Riyadh airport: another step of instability in the Middle East

Ryadh King Khalid International Airport after the strikes of the Houthis, the 10th of october 2025 (source: l'essentiel info)

On Saturday, 10 October 2026, King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh was targeted by a missile attributed to Yemen’s Houthi movement. According to Saudi officials, the attack killed 13 people and injured more than 300, making it the deadliest strike on Saudi territory in the last decade. Beyond this latest escalation in the Saudi–Houthi confrontation, the attack raises broader questions about the persistence of conflict in the Middle East and the fragility of regional security arrangements.

The Houthi attack must be understood within the wider deterioration of relations between the group and the Saudi Kingdom since the escalation of violence in September 2026. More fundamentally, it is rooted in the conflict that began in 2014–2015, when the Houthis seized Sanaa (capital of Yemen) and Saudi Arabia led an Arab coalition in support of Yemen’s international recognised government.

“Saudi Arabia’s happiness resides in Yemen’s misery” is a phrase that Ibn Saud, the founder of the modern Saudi state, in 1953, would have said. Although its historical authenticity remains uncertain, it illustrates the rooted mistrust that has long shaped relations between the two countries. Even though Saudi–Yemeni relations have strengthened cooperation, the radicalisation of the Houthi movement (originally a Zaydi revivalist group) during the 2000s increasingly complicated prospects for regional stability. The current conflict intensified in 2014, when the Houthis took control of the capital. It forced the President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi to fled to Saudi Arabia, where Riyadh intervened militarily in March 2015 by launching a war that became deadlocked as neither side achieved decisive military superiority. A United Nations truce in 2022 significantly reduced large-scale fighting, but it did not produce a lasting political settlement. The human cost has been terrible: more than 400.000 of people have been killed, while millions more have been displaced or face humanitarian needs.

Since September 2026, tensions have resumed within an increasingly uncertain geopolitical environment in the Middle East. The American military intervention in Iran, launched on 28 February 2026, has opened a Pandora’s box: regional tensions have intensified, while the Strait of Hormuz has become effectively impassable. As a result, the Bab el-Mandeb Strait has gained considerable strategic importance for international trade flows. However, the Houthis’ takeover of the Strait in September 2026 has further heightened instability in the region.

Finally, it goes without saying that many questions surround the implementation of the Mecca Treaty, signed in the summer of 2026 by Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and Turkey. Alike the article 5 of the NATO Charter, its activation could potentially draw new actors into a region already plagued by ever-increasing instability.

Auteur(e): Elias Vanlede

Date de publication: 16 octobre 2026

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