Italy

Rome, October 14, 2026. The Italian press describes a monarchy caught in a spiral it no longer controls. In Internazionale, Pierre Haski writes that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman lives in palaces full of bunkers, that the kingdom had to interrupt its air links, and that the oil conference opened in Riyadh on October 12 was held without the leaders of the largest companies in the sector. The Houthi attacks on Riyadh airport reportedly killed thirteen people and injured three hundred; an empty Airbus had been targeted earlier. Haski speaks of a "strategic dilemma": Saudi Arabia is facing a threat it cannot contain. He recalls that the war launched in 2015 by Mohammed bin Salman was "ruthless and without outcome", ended by the Saudi withdrawal from Yemen in 2022, and he sees the resumption of hostilities as part of the war against Iran triggered in February by the United States and Israel.

ANSA reports on the events of October 13. The Houthis "terrorized the kingdom" by targeting Riyadh, where a loud explosion due to air defense was heard, as well as the surroundings of an Aramco facility in the east. The coalition led by Riyadh claims to have intercepted four cruise missiles, then two drones. The rebels present these attacks as a response to Saudi strikes against a strategic oil depot on the outskirts of Sanaa. The agency notes that the Yemeni oil company claims its tanks were empty, and that the Health Ministry, controlled by the Houthis, reports two deaths in an attack against an oil company in the province of Hodeida. The Ras Isa depot was reportedly hit in ten waves, aimed, according to the agency, at stopping the Houthi advance south towards Taiz.

Adnkronos reports on the sequence of warnings. The coalition's spokesman, Turki al-Malki, asked civilians to leave the site of the Yemeni Oil Company in al-Sabaha, Sanaa, announcing a "special operation". Houthi spokesman Yahya Saree responded that any attack on Sanaa would receive a "incisive and painful" response in Riyadh, and declared Saudi Aramco sites "legitimate targets". The French embassy advised its citizens against traveling to the airports of Jeddah, Dammam, and Riyadh, "unless absolutely necessary".

The Italian perspective is thus primarily security-focused: airports hit, energy facilities targeted, crossed ultimatums addressed to civilians, and an escalation seen as an extension of the regional conflict with Iran. The price of a barrel and Washington's position do not appear in these three texts.