Hours following the Houthi rebels launched attacks targeting Aramco facilities in southern Saudi Arabia, on Sunday, a video spread on social media, whose publishers said that the Jeddah airport was bombed.
“The Saudi Jeddah airport is burning and out of service following being bombarded with missiles,” the comment accompanying the video said.
However, the claim is incorrect, as the video has nothing to do with Saudi Arabia. In fact, it shows a fire devouring cars in Egypt in 2020, according to what was published by the Agence France-Presse news-checking service.
The spread of the video, which garnered thousands of posts and comments on Facebook, began hours following the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen accused the Houthis of launching “hostile attacks” once morest Aramco facilities.
The attack occurred hours before the giant company announced its profits in 2021, and at a time when global oil markets are in a state of confusion due to the impact of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and the possibility of energy supplies being affected by the war that has been going on for nearly a month.
The coalition, which has been fighting in Yemen since 2015, considered the recent Houthi escalation of targeting civilian and economic facilities as a response to the Gulf call for dialogue.
And on Monday, the Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs warned of what it described as “severe effects” that may result from Iran’s continuing to provide the Houthi group in Yemen with ballistic missile technologies and advanced drones that target oil and gas production sites and their derivatives in the Kingdom.
Saudi Arabia confirmed, in a statement to an official at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, published by the Saudi Press Agency, that it will not bear any responsibility for any shortage of oil supplies to global markets, in light of the attacks on its oil facilities from the Iranian-backed Houthis.
The official said, “The Kingdom stresses the importance of the international community being aware of the danger of Iran’s continuing to provide the terrorist Houthi militias with ballistic missile technologies and advanced unmanned aircraft, with which they target oil and gas production sites and their derivatives in the Kingdom.”
Saudi Arabia is leading a military coalition in Yemen in support of the internationally recognized government, which has been engaged in a bloody conflict once morest the Houthis since mid-2014, in a war that killed and wounded hundreds of thousands and caused the worst humanitarian crisis in the world, according to the United Nations.
The Houthis often target airports and oil facilities in Saudi Arabia, one of the world’s largest oil exporters, once morest the backdrop of the kingdom’s leadership of the military coalition once morest them.