Saudi Seeks Shutting Down Sanaa Airport through New Airstrikes

“The allegations made by the coalition against the Sanaa airport are not something new; and are an attempt to mislead world public opinion and provide a justification for repeated attacks on it,” Yemen’s Arabic-language al-Masirah television network quoted Khaled al-Shayef as saying in a statement released on Sunday.

Shayef noted that the United Nations is the exclusive client of the Sanaa airport, and the strikes have disappointed ill Yemeni civilians requiring treatment abroad because of the serious nature of their medical condition.

He also hoped for a clear position by the UN with regard to the reopening of the airport to, at least, humanitarian flights, stressing that the airport is ready to receive various commercial and cargo flights given the fact that Yemeni aviation authorities have not received any complaints when receiving UN aircraft.

Shayef highlighted that the economic cost as a result of the Saudi-led air blockade and closure of the Sanaa airport stands at a very high level.

On Friday, Yemen’s Ansarullah revolutionary movement said attacks on the airport indicate the utter despair and confusion of the Riyadh-led alliance.

Saudi Arabia and a number of its regional allies launched the war on Yemen in March 2015, with the goal of bringing the government of former President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi back to power and crushing Ansarullah.

The war has claimed more than 100,000 lives. That is according to the US-based Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project [ACLED], a nonprofit conflict-research organization.