Saudi capital's airport reopens to limited traffic, and other Mideast news
Riyadh’s King Khalid International Airport was open for domestic flights on Wednesday following multiple Houthi strikes on the Saudi capital this month.
A British naval maritime security organization said a projectile ignited a fire aboard a tanker off Oman, but that its crew was safe.
Here is the latest news from the Middle East on Wednesday. Read our full coverage here.
A limited number of Saudi airlines took off and landed at the country’s main airport on Wednesday, two days after authorities notified airlines that they could resume operations with prior permission.
Saudia and FlyNas were operating flights Wednesday, according to flight-tracking data published by FlightAware. Major carriers, including Lufthansa and Air France, have canceled flights through mid-November.
Riyadh’s King Khalid International Airport has been hit multiple times this month by Yemen’s Houthi rebels and shut down on Oct. 10.
The Houthis have acknowledged attacking the airport, claiming without evidence that Saudi Arabia provided military equipment to government forces through the facility.
A billboard-like art installation that went on display north of Iran's capital features a live actor portraying U.S. President Donald Trump behind bars. A mockup of a prison cell protrudes from the billboard where the actor walks and occasionally sits. It went on display late Tuesday in Tajrish Square.
“Not seeing this scene is a crime,” is written on the billboard, while other messages include a reference to an early September U.S. strike on a wedding ceremony in the southern Iranian town port of Sirkik that Iranian state media said killed two women and two children and wounded more than 60 other people.
Tehran resident Farzaneh Arabzadeh, 30, said she hopes the scene becomes reality because Trump started the war by attacking Iran and "did something that put our people in a worse situation.”
Maj. Gen. Turki al-Malki, a spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition fighting against the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen, said in a social media post Wednesday that five drones fired toward Saudi Arabia were intercepted and destroyed over the holy city of Medina.
The attack was the latest on Saudi Arabia since the resurgence of fighting with the Houthis in mid-July. The Yemeni rebels repeatedly struck targets in the kingdom, including oil facilities and airports, and engaged in fierce clashes with Saudi-backed Yemeni forces in Yemen.
The coalition, in turn, hit the rebel-held areas in Yemen and provided air cover to a major offensive the Yemeni government launched earlier this month.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi said Wednesday that any military role his country plays in the conflict would be limited to helping Saudi Arabia defend its territory and wouldn't include attacks on Yemen.
In Yemen, Yahya Ali al-Raei, speaker of the Houthi-controlled parliament, said being drawn into the war would endanger Egypt’s own stability.
Houthi military spokesman Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree said a ballistic missile struck a military camp adjacent to Yemen's Aden airport in Khor Maksar district.
The Houthis claim the military camp houses a command center for the Saudi-led forces fighting the rebels.
A transportation ministry official in Aden said airport operations were temporarily suspended and the tarmac wasn't damaged. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief the media.
This is the second time the Houthis claim to have targeted the military camp inside the airport complex in five days and the third this month.
— By Sara El Deeb in Beirut and Samy Magdy in Cairo
French President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday arrived in Saudi Arabia for an unannounced visit as part of a regional tour.
Macron is expected to meet with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Macron’s office said he is there to show solidarity and to “continue ongoing efforts to secure oil and gas supplies” from the region.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Wednesday on X that Iran remains open to diplomacy if the U.S. demonstrates a willingness to build trust and reach a resolution.
But if the U.S. "chooses war over diplomacy, it’ll certainly result in an even greater strategic failure,” he added.
That echoed remarks he wrote in the Financial Times but gave no details of talks with Washington through mediators on Iran’s recent seven-day proposal to end the war and fully reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
Meanwhile, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters on Wednesday that mediation efforts are welcomed, though the final decision on terms rests with Trump.
“The United States will not support any deal that creates a pathway for Iran to ever have a nuclear weapon," he said. “As long as President Trump is in office, they will never have a nuclear weapon.”
Brad Lander, a Democrat running for a New York seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, was briefly detained by Israeli police on Wednesday as he joined rabbis and other volunteers accompanying Palestinian farmers during the annual olive harvest in the occupied West Bank.
Dozens of other volunteers also were detained, according to a spokesperson for Protect the Harvest, the group that organized the visit.
Israeli police said four foreign activists will be referred for a deportation hearing, while 32 people were questioned and released and will be prohibited from returning to the area. Another 40 were released because there were no grounds for further detention, police said.
The Israeli foreign ministry said in a post on X that Lander was “harvesting headlines” in “a calculated political provocation.”
This year’s Palestinian olive harvest has been the most violent in recent history, according to Israeli rights group Yesh Din and the Palestinian Farmers’ Union.
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This report will be updated throughout the day as new developments emerge.
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