JERUSALEM, KOMPAS.TV – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he was barred from flying to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) via Saudi Arabia’s airspace last week because of the threat of missile fire from Houthi militias in Yemen.
Netanyahu canceled a visit to the UAE last week over an argument with his neighbor Jordan. As quoted by the Associated Press, Jordan has temporarily closed its airspace for Israeli Prime Minister flights.
But instead of bypassing Jordanian airspace and taking a more southerly route across Saudi skies, Netanyahu said that there was a threat of a missile strike from the Houthi militias in Yemen if it crossed Saudi Arabia’s airspace.
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Netanyahu did not elaborate on this, but he did not say that his plane was targeted by the Iranian-backed Houthi militia.
Yemen’s Houthi rebels control the capital and much of the country’s north. They have stepped up cross-border attacks on Saudi Arabia’s vital infrastructure in recent weeks. They have also crashed drones and bomb-laden missiles into the Saudi kingdom’s Patriot missile batteries.
Last week, missiles and drones also hit one of the world’s largest oil shipping ports and cut off air traffic bound for the international airport in Jeddah. While Houthi-claimed attacks on Saudi Arabia rarely cause major damage, such attacks have roiled the world economy and increased the risk of disruption to global oil supplies.
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