New Delhi: India on Wednesday (September 9) condemned the Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia, particularly the targeting of civilian and economic facilities, warning that the strikes threatened regional security and stability as well as freedom of navigation through the strategically important Bab-el-Mandeb strait.

“India condemned the attacks on Saudi sovereign territory, especially the targeting of civilian and economic facilities,” external affairs ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said. He added that such attacks that “undermined regional security and stability and threatened freedom of navigation in the Bab-el-Mandeb were unacceptable.”

The statement came a day after Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi movement launched a wave of missile and drone attacks on southern Saudi Arabia, to strike energy and other economic infrastructure as well as a military base. Saudi authorities said 73 people, including women and children, were injured.

The Indian statement didn’t mention the Houthis or any other perpetrators by name.

The attacks hit the cities of Abha, Jazan, Najran and Khamis Mushait. Saudi Arabia’s energy ministry said fires broke out at several oil facilities and utilities and that operations at the affected facilities were temporarily suspended.

Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Saree said the group had fired dozens of ballistic missiles and drones at Aramco facilities in Abha, Najran and Jazan, as well as the King Khalid Air Base in Khamis Mushait.

The latest escalation has raised fears that fighting between the Houthis and Saudi-backed forces in Yemen could develop into a wider conflict, while also putting greater pressure on one of the world's most important maritime and energy routes.

During his visit to Moscow, Saudi foreign minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan said on Tuesday that the kingdom would not hesitate to defend itself and that the Houthis had “opened a Pandora’s box”. He also said the door to diplomacy remained open.

The Saudi foreign ministry also condemned the attacks on civilian and economic facilities and said Riyadh reserved the right to take necessary measures to protect its territory, strategic assets, citizens and residents in accordance with international law. It called for an immediate halt to Houthi attacks and for stronger international action, including implementation of relevant United Nations Security Council resolutions.

Condemning the attacks, US secretary of state Marco Rubio described the Houthis as Iranian “agents” and “proxies” and said Washington was watching developments closely, while highlighting the strong defensive military ties between the US and Saudi Arabia.

The United Nations special envoy for Yemen, Hans Grundberg, also condemned the Houthi attacks, warning that they threatened to widen the conflict and put civilians at grave risk. He called on the Houthis to halt the attacks inside Saudi Arabia as well as attacks inside Yemen, and reiterated that attacks on commercial vessels must cease.

Turkiye, which signed a new joint defence agreement with Saudi Arabia and Pakistan last month, also condemned the attacks. Its foreign ministry said the strikes endangered civilians, escalated regional tensions and undermined diplomatic efforts aimed at reaching a lasting political solution to the Yemen conflict.

While condemning the attack, Pakistan’s foreign ministry had supported Riyadh's right to take measures to defend its territory and protect its citizens and national assets. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif also expressed solidarity with the Saudi leadership and people.

Pakistan's defence minister Khawaja Asif went further, saying the Makkah Joint Defence Agreement with Saudi Arabia and Turkiye could become operational if the conflict in Yemen spilled over into Saudi territory. The agreement, signed on August 7, provides that an armed attack against any one of the three countries will be regarded as an attack against all three.

The pact had been described by the three countries as a framework to strengthen collective deterrence and defence cooperation. At a meeting of the pact's strategic political and defence committee in Istanbul on August 31, the three countries agreed to further institutionalise their cooperation and establish a secretariat in Saudi Arabia.

However, the practical military obligations remain unclear. Turkish foreign minister Hakan Fidan has said that while the agreement treats an attack on one signatory as an attack on all, a country under attack would have to request assistance and specify what kind of support it required, which could range from intelligence and logistics to ammunition or military units. Pakistan has previously described the pact as defensive in nature.

India's concern about the latest Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia comes against a longer history of New Delhi being directly affected by the Yemen conflict and the group's attacks beyond Yemen's borders.

In February 2022, India told the United Nations that the Yemen conflict was creating “ripple-effects” on security and stability across the Gulf, where around nine million Indians lived and worked. Two Indian nationals had died in a Houthi attack in the UAE on January 17 that year, while another Indian was injured in a February 10 attack on Abha airport in Saudi Arabia.

India reiterated its position the following month, condemning Houthi missile and drone attacks into Saudi Arabia and the UAE that had killed and injured civilians, including Indians. It also said reports about the possible use of Hodeidah's Red Sea ports for staging maritime attacks were “deeply worrying”.

After the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel that triggered the invasion of Gaza, Houthis began attacking commercial shipping in the Red Sea.

The attacks included the seizure of the India-bound Galaxy Leader in November and the December 2023 drone attack on the Indian-crewed MV Saibaba in the southern Red Sea. On December 23, the India-bound MT Chem Pluto, carrying 21 Indian and one Vietnamese crew member, was also hit by a suspected drone in the Arabian Sea off Gujarat. The Indian Navy subsequently stepped up surveillance and deployed destroyers and frigates to protect merchant shipping.

By January 2024, external affairs ministry spokesperson Jaiswal said India attached “very high importance” to freedom of navigation and the free movement of commercial shipping.

Two months later, the finance ministry said around 80% of India's merchandise trade with Europe passed through the Red Sea route and warned that Houthi attacks were forcing ships to take longer routes around Africa, increasing freight and insurance costs and potentially affecting Indian exports and inflation.

The latest escalation has added a Saudi energy dimension to those longstanding Indian concerns. In August 2026, two tankers carrying Saudi crude for Indian refiners switched off their tracking systems while transiting the Red Sea and exiting through the Bab-el-Mandeb after the Houthis announced a blockade of Saudi oil shipments. One vessel was chartered by the Indian Oil Corporation and the other by Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals.

At the same time, an Indian-flagged commercial vessel carrying 13 Indian nationals sank in the Red Sea off the coast of Yemen on August 4 after being hit by a projectile.

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