Houthi air assaults on Riyadh international airport and Saudi Aramco headquarters have highlighted Saudi Arabia's security vulnerabilities and investment risks.

Houthi militants controlling northwestern Yemen launched air attacks in the past week against Riyadh international airport and the headquarters of Saudi Aramco, the world's largest oil company. These strikes have exposed Saudi Arabia's vulnerability to threats from its neighbor, disrupting the kingdom's efforts to position itself as a safe international investment hub while diversifying its economy away from oil.

Iranian Support and Weapon Production

Experts attribute Saudi Arabia's vulnerability to a combination of factors, including Iranian assistance that has helped the Houthis reach near self-sufficiency in producing and deploying advanced weapons. Iran has provided weapons, money, and training to the Houthis, formally known as Ansar Allah, for more than a decade, despite officially denying violations of a UN arms embargo. Although Tehran faces its own financial and military strains due to war and sanctions, the Houthis have learned to assemble their own drones and missiles with Iranian help.

Indigenous Military Capabilities

Andreas Krieg, a senior security studies lecturer at King's College London, noted that Iran's Revolutionary Guards and Lebanese Hezbollah initially provided the Houthis with knowledge of missile systems. Former Yemeni military engineers and locally trained specialists have since institutionalized these capabilities, creating an indigenous military-industrial learning process. This development makes the Houthi threat progressively harder to dismantle, even if direct Iranian supply routes are disrupted.