SANAA, Sept. 14 (Xinhua) -- Yemen's Houthi leader Abdel-Malek al-Houthi on Thursday threatened to attack oil tankers in the international waters if Saudi-led military coalition attacks the Yemeni port city of Hodeidah.
"Any foolish attempt to invade Hodeidah and its port will be met with steps that we did not take before, such as targeting and attacking oil tankers in the sea," al-Houthi said in a televised speech on his group satellite TV channel al-Masirah.
"We have developed naval capabilities and now we can reach the Saudi ports and the other bank of the Red Sea," he said.
Al-Houthi also revealed the Houthis have developed ballistic missiles, which can hit targets deep inside the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
"The UAE is now in the range of our missiles, and all foreign companies in the UAE should not consider the UAE a safe country anymore," al-Houthi said.
The Houthi leader said he will order "military conscription" to force more thousands of Yemeni people into the military service to defend the country against the Saudi-led coalition forces.
The Yemeni army, with about 700,000 soldiers according to recent estimations by local media, is mostly loyal to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh, and has refused to engage in the war against Saudi-led coalition and the internationally recognized government of Yemeni President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi because they have been unpaid for a year.
Hodeidah port city, where 80 percent of food imports arrive, is the only port kept by Houthi rebels after the Saudi-led coalition and the Yemeni government forces recaptured the southern port city of Aden along with other southern governorates last year.
In June, the United Nations proposed the withdrawal of Houthi fighters from the Red Sea port city of Hodeidah and handing it to a third neutral party under the supervision of the UN. In return, the Yemeni government would resume salary payment to the state employees, including the army.
The government accuses Houthis of smuggling weapons through the Hodeidah port and of collecting custom revenues from imported goods to finance the war, which the Houthis have denied.
Tens of thousands of Yemeni state employees have gone largely unpaid for several months after the government shifted the central bank from Houthi-held capital Sanaa to the southern port city of Aden last year.
The Yemeni war pits dominant Shiite Houthi rebels against the internationally-recognized government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, which is backed by Saudi-led Arab coalition.
The coalition intervened in the Yemeni conflict in March 2015 after Houthi fighters captured Sanaa and expelled Hadi and his government.
The war has so far killed more than 10,000 Yemenis, half of them civilians, and displaced over 3 million others, according to UN humanitarian agencies.
