The leader of Yemen’s Ansarullah movement has vowed that Yemenis will continue to resist aggression by the United States, Israel and Saudi Arabia, calling on Riyadh and its backers to end the brutal military campaign and blockade against the Yemeni people.
Sayyed Abdul-Malik Badr al-Din al-Houthi made the remarks on Thursday in a speech marking Martyrs’ Day.
Al-Houthi said the Yemeni people remained steadfast in their pursuit of freedom and dignity, stressing that sacrifice and resistance were necessary to prevent foreign powers from dominating the country.
He described resistance as a means of confronting oppression, defending national sovereignty and establishing justice.
The Ansarullah leader said the military campaign against Yemen began in March 2015 under US supervision, with British participation and Israeli support, while Saudi Arabia served as the principal instrument for carrying out and financing the operations.
He said Washington had directed the campaign from the outset and that Riyadh had resumed its aggressive posture after tensions eased in 2022.
Al-Houthi said the United States and Israel sought to use Saudi Arabia’s financial and military resources to sustain pressure on Yemen.
He criticized Riyadh for spending the wealth of the Arabian Peninsula on a campaign against a Muslim nation, describing the war as part of a broader Western strategy to weaken the Muslim world through wars, crises and internal divisions.
He also said Washington was using its military, economic and media power to advance policies that inflict widespread suffering.
Referring to the use of destructive weapons by the United States and its allies, al-Houthi said civilian areas must not be treated as military installations.
He criticized Western governments for promoting freedom, prosperity and human rights while backing policies that result in destruction and oppression.
Turning to Palestine, al-Houthi described Palestinians as an oppressed people targeted by the British and Zionists for malicious purposes.
He said Israel was spreading injustice, crime and corruption, contradicting its claims to support freedom, economic prosperity and human rights.
He also condemned the wider Muslim world’s failure to uphold its responsibilities, saying this had allowed oppression and corruption to spread.
Addressing developments in Palestine and Lebanon, the Ansarullah leader said Israel had been committing genocide and deliberately destroying agricultural land, mountains, forests and trees to make affected areas uninhabitable.
He also criticized Arab regimes that maintain close relations with Washington and Western capitals, singling out Saudi Arabia for aligning itself with US policies.
Al-Houthi strongly rejected Saudi allegations that Yemen intended to attack the Islamic holy sites in Mecca and Medina, describing the claims as baseless.
He stated that the holy sites belonged to the entire Muslim community rather than exclusively to Saudi Arabia, saying that Riyadh was exploiting them for political and economic purposes.
He further said Saudi Arabia had allowed Israeli aircraft access to the airspace over the holy cities while restricting Yemen’s own airspace.
Calling for an end to the military offensive and blockade, al-Houthi warned that continued aggression would bring further losses for Saudi Arabia.
He said Saudi restrictions had deprived Yemenis of essential resources and were intended to force the country into submission.
Addressing residents of Yemen’s southern provinces, al-Houthi said Yemeni armed forces would not target them but would instead focus on gatherings of Saudi military personnel.
His remarks come as Yemen continues to resist Saudi military aggression. The latest escalation followed Saudi Arabia’s July bombing of Sana’a International Airport. In response, Yemen’s armed forces adopted a “blockade for blockade” policy, declaring a maritime embargo on Saudi shipping in the Red Sea.
In recent weeks, the Yemeni military has announced several successful naval operations targeting ships linked to Saudi Arabia in the Red Sea, enforcing the blockade and impacting Riyadh's energy exports.
The Yemeni forces have also carried out retaliatory attacks on targets deep inside the kingdom and made advances across Yemen’s coastal plain over the last month, reinforcing control over the strategic Bab al-Mandeb Strait.
Earlier this month, Yemen warned airlines against using Saudi airspace, declaring it unsafe while identifying the airspace over Islam’s holy cities of Mecca and Medina as the only exceptions.
The war traces back to March 2015, when Saudi Arabia, along with a US-backed coalition, launched a sweeping military campaign and blockade on Yemen aimed at reinstalling a puppet regime in Sana'a.
Despite years of bombardment and the deployment of advanced Western weaponry against Yemen, the Saudi coalition has failed to achieve its stated objectives.
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