Yemen’s Ansarullah spokesperson and chief negotiator has rejected Saudi claims that Sana’a refused to meet Saudi representatives in Oman, saying Riyadh failed to act on Yemeni proposals to lift the blockade and address humanitarian issues. 

Mohammed Abdulsalam said on Sunday that Saudi Arabia had failed to honor its commitments toward Yemen, adding that its attack on Sana’a International Airport in July had brought the truce and de-escalation efforts to an end.

Earlier this week, Saudi Arabia’s deputy minister for public diplomacy at the Foreign Ministry accused Sana’a of refusing to meet Saudi representatives in Muscat, Oman, at the beginning of the escalation in July.

“We asked them to meet in Muscat, Oman, and they refused,” the official said.

Abdulsalam, however, said the Yemeni delegation had repeatedly called on Saudi Arabia to lift its blockade on Yemen and implement the roadmap for addressing humanitarian issues, but Riyadh had failed to take any action.

He stressed that direct and indirect contacts between the two sides had continued both before and after the escalation.

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Abdulsalam also said Saudi officials believed that intensifying humanitarian and economic pressure on Yemen would force Sana’a to accept demands that Riyadh had failed to achieve through military means.

He said Sana’a had warned Saudi Arabia about the serious consequences of attacking the airport, describing the strike as a provocative act that ended the truce and de-escalation.

Following the Saudi attack on Sana’a airport in July, Yemen’s armed forces adopted a “blockade for blockade” policy and declared an embargo on Saudi shipping in the Red Sea.

The dispute has since escalated into a series of attacks and counterattacks, with Yemen’s armed forces targeting Saudi airports and energy infrastructure in response to continued Saudi aggression.

Saudi Arabia suffered its deadliest attack in more than a decade on October 10 when a strike on Riyadh's international airport killed 13 people and wounded around 300 others.

According to the Saudi-led coalition, Yemeni armed forces have attacked Riyadh's airport 20 times this month.