ADEN, Yemen, July 13– Yemen’s internationally recognized government on Monday suspended civilian flights and temporarily closed all airports under its control as tensions between the government and the Houthi group flared up over an Iranian flight carrying a Houthi delegation.
The Aden-based Transport Ministry of Yemen’s government, said in an official circular that all airlines and international organizations operating flights to and from Yemen had been notified that the closure took immediate effect and would remain in force until further notice.
An official at Aden’s airport told Xinhua that civilian air traffic had been temporarily suspended at Aden, Seiyun and Al-Rayyan airports in Hadramout province as a “precautionary measure.
” The official said two Yemen Airways flights arriving from Jeddah and Cairo were diverted to Djibouti, while urgent instructions had been issued to relocate the airline’s aircraft outside Yemen. A state of heightened alert had also been declared at government-controlled ports, the official added.
The measures followed a dramatic standoff over an Iranian passenger aircraft carrying a senior Houthi delegation returning from Tehran after attending the funeral ceremonies of Iran’s late Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
The Yemeni Armed Forces said earlier in the day that it struck the runway of Houthi-controlled Sanaa International Airport to prevent the plane from landing, after the Houthis rejected government proposals for the group’s delegation to return aboard a non-Iranian aircraft under government supervision.
The plane later landed in the Red Sea port city of Hodeidah in western Yemen. The Houthi group accused Saudi Arabia, a main ally of Yemen’s government, of carrying out the strikes on the Sanaa airport, saying the attack “will not go unanswered” and would mark the beginning of a “new phase” in confronting Saudi Arabia.
The latest developments marked one of the most serious confrontations over access to Yemen’s airspace in recent years, raising concerns over renewed escalation despite a de facto ceasefire that has largely curbed large-scale hostilities between the government and the Houthis.
Yemen has been mired in conflict since late 2014, when the Houthi group seized control of the capital, Sanaa, prompting a Saudi-led coalition to intervene the following year in support of the Yemeni government. (Namibia Daily News / Xinhua)
