The Houthi offensive is knocking on the door of the heart of the Saudi Kingdom: air raid sirens sounded for the first time since the conflict began in the skies above Riyadh , where explosions from rebel attacks woke residents of the capital in the middle of the night. Flames and a column of black smoke rose near the city's airport, with firefighters busy extinguishing a fire involving a fuel tank belonging to the oil giant Aramco. These actions indicate the rebels' desire to up the ante in the conflict, following Friday's attack on an Italian Eurofighter stationed inside the Saudi base in Ta'if.

"Ours is a legitimate armed resistance in the face of prolonged Saudi aggression," and " we are not at war with Italy and we do not intend to involve your country ," Muhammad Mansur, an official at the Houthi government's Ministry of Information in Sanaa, made clear to ANSA. "But we wonder what Italian planes are doing in Saudi Arabia supporting Riyadh's war against us ," he stated polemically. As if to indicate that, in the balance of the war, those who provide support for the defense of the skies of Middle Eastern countries also lose out.

Returning to the emergency in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, the EU High Representative for Foreign Policy, Kaja Kallas, responded to Defense Minister Guido Crosetto 's letter , agreeing with the need to strengthen the Aspides mission to protect ship transit. According to reports in Brussels, she is preparing a letter to be sent to all member states to engage them on the issue.

(Unioneonline)

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