Saudi Arabia said Wednesday that its air defense forces intercepted and destroyed a Houthi drone before it entered the skies over Mecca, but Iran-backed Houthi militias rejected the claim as a “well-worn lie” as fighting reached the holy site for the first time in the ongoing conflict.
Turki al-Malki, a spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition that has been fighting the Houthis since 2015, described the attack as a “deliberate act intended to provoke the emotions of millions of Muslims” and said the security of the holy city was a “red line that should not be crossed”.
Mecca is Islam’s holiest site and the center of the annual Hajj pilgrimage.
The Houthis rejected the Saudi statement, with spokesman Hazem al-Assad saying: “The claim of targeting Mecca is a well-worn lie that has been around for a long time and no longer fools anyone.”
The Organization of Islamic Cooperation, meanwhile, condemned the attack as a “heinous” attack and said it paralleled the Houthis’ “continued aggression” against Saudi Arabia in the Mecca and Medina region.
Saudi Arabia issued a red alert in Mecca on Tuesday. This is the last time the Houthis attempted to target holy sites with ballistic missiles in 2017. This is the first attack since days of escalating attacks drew Saudi Arabia deeper into the Middle East war.
The incident marks the latest escalation in the conflict in Yemen, which is testing a month-long defense pact between Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan and adding another flashpoint to a Middle East already destabilized by the U.S.-Iranian conflict.
A U.N.-brokered ceasefire in April 2022 largely halted Houthi attacks on Saudi territory, but fighting has flared up again since the group declared a blockade of Saudi shipping in July and gained control of a key node on the country’s Bab al-Mandeb coastline.
In early September, fighting significantly escalated, with Iranian-allied groups launching missiles and drones across Saudi Arabia. Riyadh accused Houthi rebels of launching attacks on civilian and economic facilities in the kingdom.
Saudi Arabia also blamed pro-Iranian militias based in Iraq for Friday’s attack that destroyed the East-West Pipeline, one of the kingdom’s most important oil conduits across the Arabian Desert, putting 4 million barrels a day at risk and causing oil prices to soar.
The escalation of the conflict has further rattled an already tense oil market over the constrained Gulf shipping lanes, from shutting down Saudi pipelines to shaking up traffic in the Strait of Hormuz.
Despite the reversal of the Hormuz River, oil prices are rising as oil prices rise.
Oil prices fell on Wednesday, with Brent crude futures and U.S. West Texas Intermediate futures hovering near four-month highs of $107.8 and $104.6 per barrel, respectively.
The seven-day average for oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz has increased to nearly 12 million barrels per day as of Sunday, “arguably the fastest pace since the post-MOU breakout in June-July,” said Rory Johnston, oil market analyst and founder of research firm Commodity Context.
“This time there is virtually no Iranian oil,” he said. Still, volumes remain less than 60% of pre-war levels, Johnston added, stressing that there is still room for shipping through the strait to recover, as fighting in Yemen and pipeline shutdowns add new risks to an already tight supply situation.
