CAIRO, Egypt (AP) — A volley of fire between the Iranian-backed Houthis and Saudi Arabia has threatened to upend a 2022 truce in Yemen and open another front in the already expanding war in the Middle East after the collapse of the fragile ceasefire between the US and Iran.

“Yemen today faces a greater risk of renewed large-scale conflict than at any point since the UN-brokered truce of April 2022, ” UN envoy Hans Grundberg warned.

The escalation, he said, risks “jeopardizing the gains of the 2022 truce… while also drawing the country into a broader regional confrontation, with devastating consequences for its people.”

Grundberg said he has engaged in intensive talks with Yemeni parties and regional governments to avert further escalation.

The tit-for-tat attacks started July 13 with a Saudi airstrike that hit the runway of the airport in Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, preventing the landing of an Iranian flight carrying a high-ranking Houthi delegation.

Flying a flight without prior permission from the Saudi-led coalition — a decade-long, war-related requirement — was an attempt by the Houthis to establish a new reality on the ground, challenging the coalition’s control over Yemeni airspace.

The rebels, apparently emboldened by the fallout of the US-Israeli war against Iran, sought to gain political and economic concessions from Saudi Arabia, and insisted on lifting the Saudi blockade on territories they control in Yemen.

They turned down an offer by the Saudi-backed internationally recognized government in Yemen to facilitate the Houthi delegation’s travel to Sanaa on a non-Iranian airline, said government and Houthi officials who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the talks.

The Houthis proceeded with the flight operated by Iranian-privately owned, US-sanctioned Mahan Air, forcing the Saudi-led strike that disabled the Sanaa airport.

The Saudi-led coalition eventually allowed the flight to land in the Houthi-controlled city of Hodeida, as part of Omani-led effort to avert an escalation,........

© The Times of Israel