A grave escalation

(MENAFN- Jordan Times) Yemen's Houthis deployment of long-range missiles against airports in Saudi Arabia, including Riyadh's King Khalid International Airport, is certainly a grave escalation in the war in Yemen.

Targeting civilian targets well within Saudi Arabia is intended to heighten the stakes in the war and bring an added pressure on Riyadh by bringing the fighting closer. This escalation also shows beyond a shadow of a doubt that Iran is implicated in the fighting and its supply of ballistic missiles to the Houthis is a clear incrimination of its role in the war.

After three years of armed conflict in Yemen, the hands of Iran are, therefore, clearly implicated in perpetuating the conflict until now. Tehran could be seeking a wider scale of the Yemeni war by giving it a regional dimension. This is where the UN Security Council must come in and take the necessary measures to preclude a wider scale of the Yemeni war and prevent it from assuming more ominous proportions.

The war in Yemen must come to an end as soon as possible because the longer it goes on, the more dangerous could be its regional and even international implications.

Meanwhile, Tehran is called upon to exercise restraint and to bring its influence on the Houthis on the side of stopping the war and not to widening its proportions.

Attacking Saudi Arabia must also be condemned by the international community at large in no uncertain terms. Otherwise, Riyadh would be forced to defend itself from the open aggression by all available means.

MENAFN0104201800280000ID1096680290