This photo released on Sept. 15, 2026, by the Ansarullah Media Center reportedly shows military vehicles on fire after being targeted by the group in al-Jawf. (Credit: AFP)
BEIRUT — Several voices in Lebanon — including Prime Minister Nawaf Salam — and abroad have condemned an intercepted drone attack targeting Mecca on the night of Tuesday to Wednesday, which Riyadh attributed to Yemen’s Houthi rebels, with whom Saudi Arabia is at war. The Iran-backed group denied responsibility for the attack.
In a statement released Wednesday by the official Saudi Press Agency (SPA), the Saudi Foreign Ministry described the incident as a “cowardly terrorist attack” and a “repetition of the terrorist Houthi militia’s practices of targeting and violating holy sites, as well as a provocation aimed at Muslims in all regions of the world.” The ministry also said it was the “second attempt targeting Mecca, after a first on July 27, 2017.” At the time, a ballistic missile fired from Yemen by the Houthis was intercepted by Saudi air defenses just a few kilometers from the city.
The ministry praised “the vigilance of the Royal Saudi Air Defense Forces,” which intercepted and destroyed the drone before it entered the restricted airspace around the holy city of Mecca. Riyadh also renewed its call for the international community to condemn the attacks and take a firm stance against the Houthis, amid continued Saudi military operations against the group in Yemen.
Arab League, Pakistan, OIC
Arab League Secretary General Nabil Fahmy also condemned the attack. “Undermining the security of Mecca and the sanctity of Islam’s holy sites is extremely serious,” he said in a statement, welcoming the Saudi air force’s interception of the drone.
Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif also spoke out. “The Pakistani people are saddened and appalled by this outrageous act,” he wrote on X.
The General Secretariat of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) was among the first to condemn what it described as “the heinous attacks carried out by the Houthi group against Mecca and the Medina region, as well as its ongoing aggression against the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.” It warned that the escalation of Houthi attacks on Saudi territory “threatens the security and stability of the region.”
Aoun, Salam, Hariri, Hamadeh
In Lebanon, President Joseph Aoun strongly condemned “the criminal act of aggression that targets not only the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, but also violates the sanctity of the holy sites that, in the consciousness of two billion Muslims, embody the values of faith and peace.” “Targeting holy sites, whatever the pretexts or political calculations, is a violation of all religious and human norms and requires a unified Arab and Islamic stance to put an end to such practices, which threaten the security and stability of the region,” Aoun said on X, expressing “Lebanon’s full solidarity with the Saudi kingdom.”
Earlier, Prime Minister Nawaf Salam condemned the attack “in the strongest terms.” “Such actions not only threaten the security and sovereignty of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, but also contribute to destabilizing the security and stability of the entire region,” he said, expressing Lebanon’s “full solidarity” with Riyadh, according to an official statement from the Grand Serail.
Former Prime Minister Saad Hariri also condemned the attack, saying it targeted “all Muslims” and “all Arabs” in a post on X. Earlier in the day, Democratic Gathering MP and former minister Marwan Hamadeh denounced the “hateful” attacks, adding that “the Kingdom has made considerable efforts, amid the ongoing war, to consolidate peace, security and political and economic stability in the region and internationally.” Tripoli MP Ihab Matar described the attack as an attempt to “cross all political red lines.”
The Foreign Ministry, for its part, condemned “a flagrant violation of the sanctity of Islam’s holiest sites” and expressed solidarity with Riyadh.
“Targeting Mecca, or exposing it, its residents or visitors to any kind of danger, is not only contrary to Islamic values and principles, but also constitutes an attack on the shared religious, moral and human values that uphold the inviolability of places of worship and holy sites and safeguard their status,” the ministry said in a statement.
Close allies of Iran and followers of a branch of Shiism, the Houthis this week seized control from Yemeni authorities and pro-Saudi militias of Yemen’s coastline along the Red Sea and the Bab al-Mandeb Strait, contributing to a surge in oil prices that is weighing on the global economy.
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sissi on Tuesday called from Cairo to “guarantee the freedom and security of maritime navigation” along this strategic waterway.
