The Houthis are increasingly operating independently of Tehran, posing a "clear and very present danger" on the international stage as the terror group rearms and sharpens its strike capabilities, a former U.S.envoy warned Thursday.The warning came amid deadly missile and drone attacks on Saudi Arabia in recent days and growing threats to global shipping routes and critical Middle East infrastructure in the run-up. Turki al-Maliki, spokesperson for the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen, also confirmed Thursday that Houthi attacks on King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh had killed 17 and injured 333 others from Oct.
7 to 11.Speaking at a news conference in Riyadh, al-Maliki said the Oct.10 attack involved 10 drones, missiles and other projectiles.
"King Khalid International Airport has been subjected to 20 attacks since 1 October," he noted.Tim Lenderking, who served as U.S.special envoy for Yemen from 2021 to 2025 and was posted to Saudi Arabia from 2013 to 2016, said Saudi officials had warned more than a decade ago that the Houthis would become a major threat — a prediction he says has now materialized.SAUDI FOREIGN MINISTER WARNS HOUTHI THREAT GOES GLOBAL AS TRUMP HOLDS FIREThe Houthis are increasingly operating independently of Tehran, posing a "clear and very present danger" on the international stage as the terror group rearms and sharpens its strike capabilities, a former U.S.
envoy warned.(Handout from Houthi Media Center via Getty Images)"The Saudis were very clear to our leaders that they viewed the Houthis as a major threat," Lenderking said of his time in the kingdom a decade ago, when the group was "quietly building up their capability, burnishing their narrative of why they sought to lead Yemen as a messianic group, as a group from northern Yemen, with an agenda, with a mission."The Houthis had emerged as a religious and political movement in Yemen in the 1990s, but their ties to Iran developed into a military partnership after 2014, when Tehr...