{"id":643067,"date":"2026-10-11T10:12:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-11T10:12:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/643067\/"},"modified":"2026-10-11T10:12:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-11T10:12:10","slug":"houthis-warn-airlines-and-passengers-not-to-use-saudi-arabian-airports-after-deadly-riyadh-attack","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/643067\/","title":{"rendered":"Houthis warn airlines and passengers not to use Saudi Arabian airports after deadly Riyadh attack"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Analysis\"Not since the mid-2000s has Saudi Arabia faced such a serious threatpublished at 10:08 BST<\/p>\n

10:08 BST<\/p>\n

\"\"Frank Gardner
Security correspondent<\/p>\n

Saudi Arabia wasn\u2019t ready for this. <\/p>\n

The Houthis\u2019 attacks over the past few days have hit the country\u2019s critical infrastructure in the form of the capital\u2019s main airport, apparently penetrating Saudi air defences with ease. <\/p>\n

The physical damage can be quickly repaired, but the country\u2019s reputation as a safe haven of stability is taking a battering. <\/p>\n

Not since the al-Qaeda insurgency of the mid-2000s has the kingdom faced such a serious threat. The Saudi government overcame that challenge through an effective hearts-and-minds campaign. <\/p>\n

Then it weathered the Arab Spring uprisings around the region which saw off leaders in Tunisia, Libya, Egypt and Yemen. It even shrugged off – with some annoyance – an Iranian ballistic missile attack on Riyadh in March.<\/p>\n

But this is different. Saudi Arabia may have one of the most powerful air forces in the Middle East – it has been carrying out devastating air strikes on Houthi positions – but the Houthis know exactly where to hit back: at the soft underbelly of the Saudi economy. <\/p>\n

From Jizan on the Red Sea to the petrochemical complex at Khurais, the Iran-backed Houthis are delivering explosive drones and missiles with deadly accuracy. <\/p>\n

This war now looks like it will intensify before it ends in another shaky truce.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Not since the mid-2000s has Saudi Arabia faced such a serious threatpublished at 10:08 BST 10:08 BST Frank…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":643068,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-643067","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/643067","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=643067"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/643067\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/643068"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=643067"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=643067"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=643067"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}