RIYADH: Saudi Arabia Minister of Foreign Affairs Prince Faisal bin Farhan bin Abdullah received a phone call from Iranian counterpart Abbas Araghchi.
The two ministers discussed the recent escalation in the region and efforts to address it.
The discussion comes amid attacks by Houthi in Saudi Arabia. On Sunday, one person was killed and nearly a dozen hurt in a new attack Riyadh’s international airport, Saudi authorities reported, a day after a strike claimed by Yemen’s Houthis that killed 13 people and wounded more than 300.
Saudi-led coalition forces in Yemen said an unidentified projectile had targeted Riyadh’s international airport Terminal 4 on Sunday, causing a fire. Eleven people were wounded in addition to the fatality, the Saudi civil aviation authority said.
Coalition forces also said Saudi air defences had intercepted a cruise missile in the vicinity of King Khalid International Airport. They later added that a drone had been intercepted and destroyed in the country’s Eastern Province, and a ballistic missile launched towards Khamis Mushait had been intercepted. Emergency alerts were also issued in Abha, in the south, early on Monday but the danger had since passed, the Saudi Civil Defense said.
The strikes have exposed vulnerabilities in Saudi defence capabilities as the kingdom wages an air campaign against the Houthis, who are fighting a ground war in Yemen against the Saudi-backed Yemeni government.
Footage released by Saudi state television of the Saturday attack on the Riyadh airport showed scores of religious pilgrims lined up at a gate as they prepared to travel to Islam’s two holiest sites. A bright orange flash sent people running in panic, while parts of the roof appeared to cave in.
The airport was closed after the attack, the deadliest in the kingdom in more than a decade.
