As Houthi attacks undermine Saudi security, a cautious kingdom recalibrates

Amman, Jordan | Oct. 13, 2026, 6:16 p.m. ET | 5 min read Saudi Arabia spent months trying to stay out of the U.S.-Israel-Iran war and convince Washington and Tehran to end the conflict.But deadly attacks by Yemen-based Houthis at Saudi airports over the weekend are pushing the kingdom’s normally cautious leadership to take more drastic military action to restore public and investor confidence in Saudi security, according to an analyst and palace insiders.The shift has broad implications for the region, the United States, and the kingdom’s diplomatic efforts to contain the Iran war. And it has left Saudi Arabia ramping up its own conflict in Yemen – with or without requested U.S. assistance. On Tuesday, the Saudi-led coalition intensified airstrikes against the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen, who control Sanaa, the capital. The turning point came on Saturday, when a Houthi cruise missile hit a passenger terminal at the King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh, killing 13 travelers and airport workers and wounding more than 300 others, many of whom remain in critical condition. It was the deadliest militant attack in Saudi Arabia since the Islamic State bombing of a mosque in Qatif in 2015.A second Houthi attack on Sunday killed an airport worker and forced the airport’s closure until Oct. 17. A dozen regional and international airlines suspended flights to Saudi Arabia.The Saudi-led military coalition, comprising the Yemeni government and Arab allies including Bahrain, Jordan, and Egypt, said it intercepted more Houthi missiles on Tuesday. “We are dealing with a terrorist militia,” Saudi Minister of Media Salman al-Dosari said late Monday. “The kingdom’s top priority is ensuring the safety of its citizens and residents.” UGC/APIn an image taken from video, thick black smoke and flames are seen rising over King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Oct. 9, 2026. Yemen-based Houthi militants launched strikes against the busy airport, killing at least 13 people and wounding hundreds of others. Saudi red linesWhile Saudi Arabia previously absorbed attacks against its oil infrastructure, the weekend strikes crossed what observers say were red lines: the strikes killed citizens and foreigners, shuttered airports, and threatened Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s efforts to attract foreign investment in the country’s non-oil economy.The epicenter of his ambitious economic transformation is Riyadh, a metropolitan area of 8.5 million people that is now isolated and vulnerable to Houthi strikes.“The attacks have narrowed the space Saudi Arabia had maintained between regional conflict and everyday life,” says Hesham Alghannam, a Saudi political analyst and Carnegie Middle East scholar based in Riyadh. With the attacks leaving the Saudi capital’s infrastructure “visibly exposed, protecting public confidence has become as strategically important as protecting territory,” he adds.Arabic social media this week was awash with Saudi citizens clamoring for a decisive defeat of the Houthis. Saudi Arabia has been embroiled in an on-again, off-again war with the Houthis in neighboring Yemen since the militants overthrew a Saudi-aligned, internationally recognized government in 2014 and captured one-third of Yemen’s territory.Amplifying Saudi public and official anger is the fact that the majority of those killed Saturday were Muslim pilgrims on their way to Mecca. Millions of Muslims from across the world make the pilgrimage year-round, a point of pride for Saudis and a revenue stream for the country’s economy. “Civilian deaths at Riyadh’s airport and disruption to pilgrimage travel turn an abstract threat into a personal one, which definitely widens acceptance of decisive retaliation,” says Mr. Alghannam. Without public polling, however, he says it’s not clear whether the Saudi public supports “stronger deterrence” or “prolonged war.”The attack shattered a sense of safety in the kingdom of 35 million people.While Iranian and Iraqi militia missiles and drones closed airspaces and disrupted life in neighboring Gulf states, the Saudi government had been able to spare its population the worst of the Iran war through diplomacy with Iran and U.S.-assisted air-defense systems.Until Saturday, daily life had continued mostly unaffected.Houthis, not IranSaudi Arabia has gone to great lengths to depict its battle as against the Houthis, not their powerful backer, Iran. On Sunday, the Saudi and Iranian foreign ministers spoke about “the recent escalation in the region.”Saudi leaders believe that continuing diplomatic engagement with Iran, alongside military deterrence, is the only way to neutralize the Houthi threat without widening the war, say multiple Saudi insiders, who requested anonymity as they are unauthorized to speak to the media. Riyadh believes the region will descend into further turmoil should the U.S.-Israel-Iran conflict become a Saudi-Iranian or Arab Gulf-Iran war – which it believes no side will win. Southern Giants Brigades Media Office/APIn an image taken from undated video released on Oct. 5, government-aligned Southern Giants Brigades fighters fire a truck-mounted weapon at Houthi militants near Taiz in southwestern Yemen. Instead, Riyadh is focusing on Yemen, where a four-year Saudi-Houthi truce collapsed this fall amid the Houthis’ rapid offensive to capture the rest of Yemen from the Saudi-backed government.Rather than preparing a ground invasion into difficult mountainous terrain, Saudi Arabia is choosing to intensify its air campaign and broaden its international coalition, including defensive measures to benefit itself and its Yemeni allies fighting back against the Houthis.On Tuesday, the coalition said it targeted Houthi underground fuel reserves and fuel tanks, as well as energy terminals in Hodeidah, Sanaa, and Dhamar.Riyadh is backing Yemeni factions, such as the so-called Giants Brigade. But experts warn that divisions among anti-Houthi groups remain a stumbling block that might prompt deeper Saudi ground involvement.U.S. participation?Questions remain whether the U.S., Saudi Arabia’s closest defense partner, from whom it has purchased more than $1 trillion in military hardware since 2000, will be dragged in.After mulling but ultimately declining to order airstrikes against the Houthis in September, U.S. President Donald Trump said Saturday he was “going to look” at joining Saudi Arabia’s air campaign. On Monday, he said he would talk to the crown prince and noted that the Houthis were “behaving very badly.”But Mr. Trump faces dwindling stockpiles of missiles and interceptors and rising discontent at home over the economic fallout of the Iran war. Escalating a fight with the Houthis might risk a full-blown return to war with Iran and prompt the Houthis to close the Bab el-Mandeb Strait in the Red Sea, a critical oil- and gas-bypass route for the largely closed Strait of Hormuz, further spiking gas prices at home.Houthi political bureau member Mohammed al-Bukhaiti, in an interview with Agence France-Presse, warned on Monday that the U.S. would face a “swift, painful response” and that the movement would target “the U.S. and all its interests in the region” should it enter the war in Yemen.For now, Saudi Arabia is leaning on its “Mecca Pact” defensive security coalition partners Pakistan and Turkey. Their August treaty states that “an armed attack against any one of the three states shall be regarded as an attack against all three.”Turkey and Pakistan are already dispatching military hardware, advisers, and troops to Saudi Arabia and to Aden, the Yemeni coastal city under the control of Saudi-backed factions. Deepen your worldviewwith Monitor Highlights.Politics with respectGet political stories with respectful analysis.There‘s a world of new ideas in everyBooks newsletter.There‘s more to life, enrich yours withCulture & Learning weekly.Follow humanity‘s discoveries withScience & Nature stories in your inbox.Gain a spiritual perspectivefrom the stories in your inbox.Want to understand the deeper impact of critical events? Learn the Monitor‘s insight.Already a subscriber? Log in to hide ads. Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan cautioned on Monday that the coalition would not take offensive military action in Yemen, in the spirit of the bloc’s “defensive” mandate.“The alliance’s real test is whether it can deter attacks without drawing its members into an open-ended Yemeni war,” notes Mr. Alghannam, the Riyadh-based scholar. ALREADY A SUBSCRIBER? 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