Aden (South24 Center)

The Houthis have escalated their rhetoric toward Saudi Arabia, demanding that Riyadh fulfill its commitments under the "roadmap" (a political plan between Saudi Arabia and the Houthis mediated by Oman).

The head of the Supreme Political Council in Sanaa, Mahdi al-Mashat, stated in a televised speech on Wednesday evening (March 25) that his group still adheres to a political solution but emphasized that "humanitarian and economic entitlements do not tolerate procrastination."

Al-Mashat added: "We affirm our commitment to the option of peace, but we demand moving from promises to implementation," referring to the understandings reached over the past years between his group and Riyadh.

In a warning tone, he said: "Our people cannot be patient indefinitely," stressing that his group "will seize full and undiminished rights."

Al-Mashat accused Saudi Arabia and the United States of obstructing the roadmap’s implementation, saying they refuse to pay salaries from "the wealth of the Yemeni people."

In a regional context, Al-Mashat announced his group’s support for Iran, saying it has the right to "defend itself," describing attacks on it as "flagrant aggression."

The speech coincided with the anniversary of the Saudi-led Arab Coalition’s intervention in Yemen on March 26, 2015, to support legitimacy in the country and confront the coup by the Houthis and their ally Ali Abdullah Saleh at the time against President Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi.

Al-Mashat’s speech followed days of escalatory statements by Houthi leaders. On March 20, Mohammed al-Bukhaiti said the group might resort to closing the Bab al-Mandab Strait to what he described as "aggressor countries" if the regional confrontation with Iran expands, adding that "all options are open."

The group’s leader, Abdul Malik al-Houthi, also announced on March 19 a "readiness at the level of military positioning," stressing that "all options are on the table" in light of developments in regional escalation.

These statements come at a time when the roadmap between Saudi Arabia and the Houthis remains stalled, amid a deadlock in implementing key files, most notably salary payments, confidence-building measures, and economic arrangements, which increases the fragility of the de-escalation path.

A deep state of suspicion and concern prevails in South Yemen that the bilateral roadmap is designed to serve the interests of Saudi Arabia and the Houthis and targets oil wealth in Hadramout and Shabwa.

Since October 2022, oil exports from South Yemen have stopped following drone attacks launched by the Houthis on oil ports in Hadramout and Shabwa, including two attacks on the Al-Dabba oil port in Hadramout in October and November of the same year.

The Financial Times reported on March 16, citing an informed source, that Saudi Arabia had informed the Houthis that any direct intervention in the regional war would be met with strikes targeting their strongholds in Saada Governorate, at a time when Houthi reinforcements were spotted along the Red Sea coast and in the vicinity of Hodeidah port.

On the other hand, military sources spoke of arrangements overseen by Saudi Arabia among Yemeni military forces loyal to it, particularly the Salafist forces (Nation’s Shield Forces) and the Yemeni Emergency Forces, in what appear to be preemptive measures for any round of escalation.