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Targeting Saudi Arabia undermines the security of UAE and all Gulf states, Diplomatic Adviser to the UAE President, Dr Anwar Gargash, said on Monday, amid repeated attacks on Saudi Arabia during the past week, including a deadly Houthi strike on Riyadh airport that killed 13 on October 10.
"Since the start of the aggression against the Gulf Arab states, based on the aggressor’s mistaken assessment that they were the weakest link in a war we had sought to avoid, it has become clear that we are all targets and that our security is indivisible," Dr Gargash wrote on X, referring to the wider US-Iran war and Tehran attacks on Gulf states.
The UAE official also called for reviving joint Gulf action, stressing that Gulf security is a shared responsibility that cannot be neglected or delayed. "There is a need to revitalise joint Gulf action, particularly in its security and defence dimensions, and strengthen the collective security system." Dr Gargash said there have been serious shortcomings in this area, which encouraged others to overstep.
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His comments come as a conflict between Saudi Arabia and the Iran-aligned Houthi group in Yemen intensifies. The exchange of fire is considered a spillover of the wider US-Iran war, which started on February 28.
An attack on King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh on October 10 left 13 people dead, including four Saudis and injured over 300, according to Saudi civil aviation authorities. On October 11, one Pakistani resident was killed and 11 were injured in a fresh attack on the airport.
In total, 18 people were killed in repeated attacks on the Saudi aviation hub over the past week. Operations at the airport have been temporarily suspended as a result and flight disruptions continued across Saudi Arabia on Monday, with 362, or 34.54 per cent, of 1,048 scheduled departures cancelled or marked as no-fly due to Houthi attacks on Riyadh airport, according to flight schedule data compiled by Cirium as of 5.30am UAE time.