MOSCOW — Russia says it has told the Houthi movement that strikes on civilian infrastructure are “unacceptable,” and that nobody has asked it to mediate in a war that has now reached Saudi airports.
Deputy Foreign Minister Georgy Borisenko told reporters on Wednesday that Moscow has “not received any specific requests for mediation so far,” but remains “in contact with our Saudi friends” and has also passed its message to representatives of Ansar Allah, the Houthi movement’s formal name, TASS reported. In a separate interview with RTVI, he said Russia “condemns attacks on any civilian facilities, on any civilian infrastructure,” including those on Riyadh International Airport, and recalled that hostilities in Yemen “effectively ceased” in 2022 under agreements reached with Saudi participation.
The airport attack came on Saturday. King Khalid International Airport was hit in a strike that killed 13 people, one of them Sudanese, and injured 309, Arab News reported. TEH covered the Riyadh airport attack as the toll was still being counted.
Sudan’s Foreign Ministry called it “a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law” in a statement on Sunday. Defense Minister Gen. Hassan Kabroun went further in comments to Arab News, saying any attack on Saudi Arabia is “an attack on Islam’s holy sites, Islam, and Muslims” and that Sudan stands “united against mercenaries and against the enemies of Islam and humanity.”
Lebanon’s voice was official and commercial at once. President Joseph Aoun told Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman by telephone on Tuesday that the attacks are “a threat to the Kingdom’s security and stability, and to the security and stability of the region,” according to Arab News. Prime Minister Nawaf Salam repeated Lebanon’s “full solidarity with the Kingdom.” Elie Rizk, of a Lebanese-Gulf economic relations body, warned that disruption to Saudi energy exports would hit the whole region and could delay Vision 2030.
The statements share a verb and almost nothing else. Moscow, in Borisenko’s account to TASS, says it has a line to the Houthis but has not been asked to use it for mediation; Khartoum and Beirut offer solidarity. None names a mechanism, and none reports an answer from the Houthi side. The movement’s spokesman, as TEH reported, has described its operations as retaliation for Saudi airstrikes on Yemen and claimed strikes on two Aramco sites.
Whether the Houthis have answered Moscow’s message, Borisenko did not say.
