After the Houthi missile struck King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia’s capital, on Oct. 10, more than 300 people were left dead, dying or injured. An elderly man, his hand torn and bleeding, begged, “Please, my daughter, help me.” Ebtehal bint Abdullah, an airport passenger services agent for Riyadh Air, bound the wound with a head scarf found on the floor of the passenger terminal. She forced open the emergency exits and led travelers out. Then, though injured herself, she went back for the wounded, guiding paramedics through the terminal.
The Houthis sent a missile to spread terror. Ms. Abdullah answered it with courage. She kept going, and so will we all.
Saudi Arabia has transformed itself so that young women like Ms. Abdullah can shape the future of their country. She should not have to do it under the shadow of terrorism. The Houthi militia deliberately struck a terminal full of travelers that day, killing 13 people — an act of terrorism, pure, simple and evil. And it must be fought as terrorism, with the same global resolve that has defeated terrorist organizations before.
The Houthis’ leader, Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, has spent two decades building a terrorist network with Iran’s backing. He hides in the mountains and speaks to his followers only by video. He has broken every peace agreement his group has signed, using each truce to rearm for the next offensive. His slogan calls for death to America, and an American was among those killed at the Riyadh airport.
Consider what the Houthis have built. When Islamic State terrorists in Syria paraded a single Scud missile through Raqqa in 2014, it made global headlines. The Houthis have fired more than one thousand ballistic missiles and drones into Saudi Arabia since March 2016. United Nations investigators report that Houthi engineers have taught Al Shabaab, the militant group in East Africa, how to make bombs and modify drones. Last month an American artificial intelligence company disclosed that a weapons cell in Houthi-controlled northern Yemen had tried to use its tools to write guidance software for a long-range missile. If one Scud alarmed the world, a terrorist army that builds its own missiles, exports the know-how and turns to artificial intelligence to sharpen its aim should terrify it.
The stakes reach far beyond Yemen. The Houthis have threatened to close the Bab al-Mandab Strait, the southern entrance to the Red Sea, through which about 10 percent of world trade passes. Their strikes on Saudi energy facilities this month helped push oil prices back above $100 a barrel.
ISIS was defeated by local forces backed by a coalition of more than 80 nations. The Houthis can be defeated the same way. It is Yemen’s fight to lead. Since 2015, Saudi Arabia has stood by Yemen, responding to its government’s request for help after the Houthis captured Sanaa, the capital. The Yemeni people have borne the conflict’s heaviest cost. That is why Saudi Arabia remains one of Yemen’s largest humanitarian donors, and why Houthi aggression must end.
Today Yemeni government forces are on the offensive along the Red Sea coast, in Jawf and in Marib, with Saudi air support. They have already seized more than 750 tons of weapons bound for the Houthis. The coalition is targeting launch sites and weapon warehouses to dismantle the networks behind missile attacks on Saudi territory and hold those responsible accountable.
The Houthi war economy of extortion and front companies must be shut down, and that work has also begun. Saudi Arabia has closed its financial system to the Houthis and every terrorist group. With our partners, we are enforcing sanctions and designations, and we are backing Yemen’s government as it confiscates weapons and money. The United States has rightly designated the Houthis a foreign terrorist organization. Every nation should do the same.
The Houthis have no red lines. There is no limit to what they will inflict on those they call enemies. They compel students as young as 10 to chant “Death to America” and send thousands of children into combat. The radical indoctrination must be stopped.
The Houthis today are what ISIS was before it seized Mosul in Iraq and proclaimed a caliphate: a terrorist movement the world underestimated. The international community should set a clear goal to end the Houthis as an armed terrorist force. That means designating them as terrorists in every capital. It means cutting off their money and stopping their weapons at sea. And it means giving Yemen’s government what it needs to achieve its objectives.
Ending the Houthis’ armed terror is the only path to the Yemeni-led political settlement Saudi Arabia has always supported. Ms. Abdullah faced Houthi terror with courage. Yemenis face it every day. We owe them a future free from it.
Reema Bandar Al-Saud is ambassador of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to the United States.
Source photographs by Anadolu and MATTHEW MIRABELLI via Getty Images.
The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. We’d like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips. And here’s our email: [email protected].
Follow the New York Times Opinion section on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Bluesky, WhatsApp and Threads.
The post There Is No Limit to What the Houthis Will Do appeared first on New York Times.
