190613 houthi supporters
Supporters of the Houthi movement in Sanaa, Yemen. Image Credit: Reuters

On Wednesday, Al Houthi terrorists launched a missile attack on an airport in the Saudi Arabian city of Abha. At least 26 people were injured in the attack — a deliberate, wilful and malicious attempt to kill or maim as many as possible by a terrorist organisation whose actions have crossed a moral and legal threshold into war crimes. The attack has been condemned in the strongest possible utterances by the UAE, and we stand resolute in ensuring those responsible for this and similar terrorist incidents will face the full wrath of justice.

The deliberate targeting of Abha airport clearly demonstrates that Al Houthi terrorists have been supplied with sophisticated missile weaponry from the regime in Tehran. That supply chain also proves that Iran has provided the terrorists with targeting capabilities and the ability to launch and fuel these weapons. This has but one aim — to ensure that the malicious and sectarian agenda of the Iranian leadership is propagated through the force of arms. The provision of missiles is clearly a predetermined escalation — it is one that Tehran is aware brings the severest of consequences, and no nation or its allies will stand idly by while people waiting at an airport are targeted by missiles.

The incident has been condemned by the United Nations and comes at a time when the Prime Minister of Japan is visiting Tehran in an attempt to ease tensions. The attack then sends a crystal clear message that the regime in Iran has no intention of changing course. It is yet another snub to the international community, another indication that Tehran has but one focus: spreading subversion and terror from the Bab Al Mandab to the Mediterranean.

Intent on bringing terror and misery to the people of Yemen and beyond, the Al Houthi terrorists are in a position to do so because of the backing of the Iranian leadership. The supply of light and heavy arms, missiles and maritime mines has been bankrolled and provisioned by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, on the orders and acquiescence of the regime’s highest echelons.

It seems as if every attempt at diplomacy has failed to make a difference to Tehran. So too has every appeal on the international front, every entreaty for the regime to change its ways, to cease and desist from arming and abetting terrorists. Iran must change its ways — and very quickly. Patience and time are in very short supply.