(WASHINGTON, DC) – The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia strongly condemns the attack on the U.S. Navy destroyer USS Mason by Houthi-Saleh militia in the Red Sea off the coast of Yemen.

The terrorist act jeopardizes international maritime security and is a systematized attack carried out by an Iran-backed militia targeting commercial marine at the Strait of Bab el-Mandab.

Several other recent acts by the Houthi-Saleh alliance are in conflict with international efforts – including those of the UN Special Envoy – to reach a political solution and to abide by UN Security Council resolution 2216.

Those acts include the attack on a UAE vessel carrying humanitarian aid on October 1; continual aggression on the Saudi border; and the launching of ballistic missiles toward Saudi territories, the last of which was on October 9, toward Makkah, which are in violation of the commitments made by the Yemeni people at the National Dialogue Conference.