The Gulf Cooperation Council issued a formal condemnation of attacks by Yemen’s Houthi fighters against Saudi Arabia during a foreign ministers’ meeting in Manama, Bahrain on Sunday. The six-member bloc, comprising Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates, invoked their joint defence agreement and reaffirmed the kingdom’s right to self-protection. The ministers stated that an attack on any member state would be treated as affecting the entire organization.
The statement followed reports that the Saudi-led military coalition shot down multiple unmanned aerial vehicles in the early morning hours near Riyadh and the Eastern Province. Gulf officials accused the Houthis of conducting strikes against civilian airports and critical infrastructure, calling for stricter enforcement of UN arms embargoes and formal designation of the group as a terrorist organization. The ministers welcomed a UN Security Council statement from October 15 condemning Houthi attacks on Saudi territory and threats to maritime shipping in the Red Sea.
Meanwhile, Yemen’s internationally recognized government submitted separate communications to UN leadership documenting Houthi assaults on civilian infrastructure, including an attack on the presidential palace in Aden. In a related development, the UAE’s Vice President met with Saudi Arabia’s Defence Minister in Abu Dhabi to discuss regional security matters.
On the ground, military operations continued across multiple fronts as Saudi-backed Yemeni government forces conducted counteroffensives aimed at recapturing territory from the Houthis, who have controlled the capital since 2014. Fighting was reported in several provinces, with government commanders claiming battlefield successes though casualty figures could not be independently verified. The conflict has displaced over 233,000 people according to the International Organization for Migration, with approximately 121,000 in Taiz province.
Humanitarian conditions in Taiz have deteriorated significantly as supply routes face disruption. Local reports indicated cooking gas shortages, food prices rising fivefold, and critical medical supply deficiencies in the province’s 12 hospitals, which faced fuel shortages with only four days of reserves remaining and depleted surgical supplies amid an active cholera outbreak.
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