Houthis threaten to fire Arab coalition funding sources

CAIRO – 14 November 2017: Sharaf Ghaleb Luqman, a military spokesman for the Houthi rebels, said that his forces plan to target all funding sources of the Arab coalition countries in Yemen, as a military response to Saudi Arabia’s decision to close all Yemen’s ground, air and sea ports.

Earlier on Saturday, Houthi leader Youssef al-Madani said that the coalition battleships and oil tankers will not be safe from the Yemeni naval forces’s ammunition if the “high leadership” decides to fire, Al-Masira reported.

The Saudi mission to the United Nations said that the Arab coalition will reopen all ports in areas that are under the control of Yemen's internationally-recognized government within 24 hours, Sky News reported Monday. The ports are in Aden, Mocha and Mukalla, the statement added.

On November 4, the Saudi Defense Ministry said that its air defense units intercepted a ballistic missile northeast of Riyadh, saying it was fired from Yemen.

The Yemeni Civil War erupted in 2014 when the Iran-backed Houthis ousted the country’s government. Saudi Arabia led a coalition in 2015 to reinstall the legitimate Yemeni government back to power.