Houthi chief: Saudi Arabia can ensure peace for itself by stopping hostilities against Yemen

“The Saudi regime can only achieve peace, security, and stability through implementing peace for Yemeni people, and lifting the blockade on them,” al-Houthi said in a televised address on Tuesday.

“It is possible for the Saudi and Emirati regimes to stop their aggression against Yemen in a fair and correct manner,” he added.

Saudi Arabia started a brutal war of aggression against Yemen in March 2015, enlisting the assistance of some of its allies, including the United Arab Emirates.

The war, which has enjoyed generous arms, logistical, and political support from the United States and several other Western governments, has been seeking to restore power in Yemen to the country’s former Riyadh- and Washington-friendly government.

The former Yemeni government’s president Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi resigned from the presidency in late 2014 and later fled to Riyadh amid a political conflict with Ansarullah. The movement has been running Yemen’s affairs in the absence of a functioning administration.

The war has, meanwhile, killed tens of thousands of Yemenis and turned entire Yemen into the scene of the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

In March 2022, the Saudi-led coalition announced that it would cease all hostilities within Yemen. The truce was extended twice in 2022, but not prolonged in October when it lapsed.

“Let everyone hear [this], we will continue to confront the aggression if targeting Yemen is continued,” the Houthi leader said.

“Our people’s suffering and the deprivation of their wealth cannot continue without response,” he added, noting, “No one can justify the continuation of the siege and occupation [of Yemen].”

Houthi also accused the United States of “obstructing real peace” and “fair entitlements for our dear people.”

He, however, noted that the US was, itself, “facing deep crises,” identifying it as “the most indebted country in the world.”

“International events indicate that the US is heading towards decline, and has begun to weaken economically,” the Houthi leader concluded.