India on Wednesday condemned the latest wave of attacks carried out by Yemen's Houthi rebels on energy installations in Saudi Arabia, saying the strikes undermined regional security and stability while threatening freedom of navigation through the Bab-el-Mandeb strait. The comments, delivered by External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal in response to a media query, marked the first official Indian reaction since the Houthis announced on Tuesday that they had targeted energy facilities belonging to Saudi Aramco in southern Saudi Arabia as part of what the group described as a "broad operation."
Jaiswal said India condemned the attacks on Saudi sovereign territory, especially the targeting of civilian and economic facilities, and stated that such strikes, which undermined regional security and stability and threatened freedom of navigation in the Bab-el-Mandeb, were unacceptable. Saudi authorities confirmed that the attacks triggered fires at multiple oil installations and utility sites and left 73 people injured, underscoring the scale of the assault on the kingdom's energy infrastructure.
The Houthi attacks have drawn condemnation from several other countries as well, including Pakistan and Turkiye, both of which recently signed the Makkah Joint Defence Agreement with Saudi Arabia. The trilateral pact, signed on August 7 at Al-Safa Palace in Makkah by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, commits each signatory to treat an armed attack against any one of the three states as an attack against all of them. The agreement built upon an earlier Pakistan-Saudi defence pact signed in September 2025, extending its collective-security framework to include Turkiye amid mounting regional instability.
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The latest Houthi strikes come against the backdrop of a broader regional conflict that has intensified sharply since February 2026, when the United States and Israel launched a joint military campaign against Iran. In the aftermath of that operation, Saudi Arabia has faced repeated missile and drone attacks from Iranian forces as well as from Tehran-aligned groups, including the Houthis in Yemen and armed factions in Iraq, straining the kingdom's air-defence resources and disrupting its energy exports and development plans. The Jazan refinery, for instance, has remained shut since late July following an earlier combined missile and drone assault that damaged its gasification complex and tank farm.
India's condemnation aligns with a broader pattern of international reaction to the escalating Houthi campaign, with other regional and global powers, including the United States, also having voiced concern over the group's continued attacks on Saudi energy infrastructure in recent days. Officials in Washington have separately attributed much of the Houthis' operational capacity to backing from Iran, describing the group as functioning largely as an Iranian proxy in the region.
As tensions continue to simmer across the Gulf and the Red Sea corridor, India's statement reflects its broader interest in regional stability, given the country's significant economic and energy ties to Saudi Arabia and its reliance on secure shipping lanes through the Bab-el-Mandeb strait for a substantial share of its energy imports. With no clear resolution in sight to the wider conflict involving the United States, Israel, Iran and its regional proxies, further diplomatic statements from India and other affected nations are likely as the situation continues to develop.
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