Yemen stresses right to self-defense as Saudi Arabia resorts to UN over Aramco raid

Yemen says its armed forces reserve the legitimate right to respond to any act of aggression by the Saudi-led military coalition, after Riyadh complained to the UN Security Council over a Yemeni missile attack on an Aramco petroleum products distribution plant in the kingdom’s port city of Jeddah.

“The Saudi regime, despite all its appeals for condemnation and attempts to portray itself as a victim, cannot escape the fact that it is an aggressor and abuses the rights of Yemeni people,” Mohammed Abdul-Salam, spokesman of Yemen’s Houthi Ansarullah movement, wrote in a Twitter post on Tuesday.

He added, “The whole world knows it was the Saudi regime which launched an aggression and siege [against Yemen], and is pressing ahead with them.”

“As long as the Saudi regime continues such behavior, it should only wait for a response and legitimate defense unless it puts an end to the aggression and lifts the blockade,” Abdul-Salam said.

Moreover, Ansarullah politburo member Ali al-Qahoum told Lebanon-based al-Mayadeen television news network on Tuesday evening that the Riyadh regime’s confusion over the missile strike on the Saudi Aramco plant in Jeddah is proof of growing capabilities of the Yemeni armed forces.