The Saudi government spokesperson has officially announced on Al Jazeera that the kingdom’s war aim is to expel Yemeni resistance AnsarAllah from Bab al-Mandab and the Yemeni coast, explicitly stating the purpose of preventing Yemenis from threatening the Israeli port of Eilat and disrupting the movement of Israeli ships in the Red Sea. The statement, broadcast in recent days and circulating widely, marks the first time Riyadh has stated through its official spokesperson that it is bombing Yemen and killing its people in order to protect Israeli interests and secure navigation for Israeli vessels.
The background to this admission lies in the Saudi-led, US-backed aggression on Yemen that Riyadh renewed in mid-2026 after AnsarAllah’s blockade in the Red Sea began strangling the Israeli occupation’s southern maritime artery. Yemen’s resistance had already demonstrated its ability to cripple Eilat, the occupation’s Red Sea port, whose operations halted under the pressure of Yemeni operations launched in solidarity with Gaza. Saudi Arabia’s official position until now framed its campaign as self-defence against strikes on its territory, but the new statement strips away that cover, confirming what the resistance has long argued: that Riyadh’s war serves the Israeli occupation and the Western powers propping it up.
Current developments indicate the admission comes as the kingdom’s military campaign intensifies on every front. Riyadh has spent weeks pounding Yemeni cities with coalition airstrikes while U.S-Saudi led Yemeni government forces press a ground offensive toward the Red Sea coast, and Reuters reported on October 2 that Saudi Arabia is planning a major assault on AnsarAllah specifically to break the Red Sea chokehold. The Saudi UN envoy separately declared that the kingdom “will not allow Yemen to become a launchpad for attacks” or threats to Red Sea shipping, while Washington openly weighs joining the bombing campaign. Together, the statements reveal a coordinated Saudi-American-Israeli effort to clear Yemen’s coast of the one force that has imposed real costs on the occupation’s economy.
Strategically, the spokesperson’s confession demolishes Riyadh’s claim to leadership of the Muslim world and exposes the reality behind the Mecca Joint Defence Agreement with Turkiye and Pakistan. A kingdom that styles itself Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques has now declared, in its own official voice, that its bombs fall on Yemeni cities to keep Israeli shipping lanes safe while the Israeli occupation’s genocide in Gaza continues. The admission also vindicates AnsarAllah’s stated rationale, that its blockade targets the occupation and its sponsors, and transforms Saudi Arabia in the eyes of the region from a neutral broker into an active guardian of Israeli maritime interests. For the Arab and Muslim street, the statement is a watershed: the war on Yemen can no longer be dressed as counterterrorism or border defence.
The humanitarian impact of a war now openly fought for Israeli shipping will fall on Yemen’s already shattered population. More than 300,000 Yemenis have been displaced by the current escalation, aid agencies are overwhelmed, and the coalition’s blockade continues to restrict the ports and airports through which food and medicine must flow. Every missile Riyadh fires to clear Bab al-Mandab for Israeli vessels lands on the same Yemeni civilians who have endured years of siege, and the spokesperson’s words guarantee that the suffering will be dismissed in Western capitals as the price of keeping the occupation’s trade routes open.
As the planned assault on the Yemeni coast approaches, the trajectory of the war is now defined by Riyadh’s own declaration of intent. A spokesman’s sentence has done what years of resistance propaganda could not: it has put the kingdom’s flag on the same mast as the Israeli occupation’s, in a war fought to protect Eilat rather than the people of Yemen or the sanctities of the Muslim world. What remains clear is that Saudi Arabia has announced it is waging war on Yemen to secure Israeli ships in the Red Sea, and in doing so has confirmed that Yemen’s resistance, not Riyadh’s coalition, is the force actually confronting the occupation.
