Iran has urged rival Saudi Arabia to pursue a diplomatic solution to its escalating conflict with the Houthi militia in Yemen.

Iran warned that continued military action would only worsen the situation.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told his Saudi counterpart, Faisal bin Farhan, during a telephone call that “Insisting on a military approach and disregarding a political solution would only further complicate the situation”.

Iran was prepared to “provide any form of support” to help initiate talks, the Iranian Foreign Ministry said.

The conflict between Saudi Arabia and the Iran-allied Houthi militia escalated sharply over the weekend.

More than a dozen people were killed and hundreds injured in the most serious attack to date on Riyadh’s international airport, according to officials.

The Houthis claimed responsibility and warned that Saudi airports and airspace were “legitimate targets.”

The militia said it had launched ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and drones at airports and energy facilities, including sites belonging to state-owned oil giant Aramco.

The Houthis also accused Saudi Arabia of carrying out more than 120 airstrikes on the Yemeni capital, Sana’a, and other provinces within 24 hours.

The claims could not be independently verified.

The Houthis have been fighting the Saudi-backed internationally recognized government in Yemen for more than a decade.

A truce reached in 2022 largely froze the conflict, but fighting has flared again against the backdrop of the wider war involving Iran.

China’s Beijing 12345 Hotline Citizen Service Centre is emerging as a model of technology-driven urban governance, placing residents’ needs at the centre of public service delivery.

Journalists from Global South countries expressed admiration for the facility on Monday after visiting its headquarters in the Chinese capital.

The centre operates a 24-hour, non-emergency public service platform connecting residents and businesses with government departments, sub-district authorities and public utilities.

It receives questions, complaints and requests for assistance from thousands of people daily, using digital technologies and Artificial Intelligence (AI) to improve efficiency.

The platform integrates phone calls, text messages, photographs, videos, sign language and multiple languages, ensuring that people with different communication needs can access public services.

Each complaint or request is registered as a case, enabling officials to track concerns, direct them to appropriate departments and monitor responses.

AI also supports case assignment, quality control and data analysis, helping authorities identify recurring problems and improve decision-making.

Webster Clayeh, President of the Reporters Association of Liberia, said the provision of sign-language services particularly impressed him, describing accessibility for persons with disabilities as an important lesson for African countries.

Clayeh also highlighted the integration of different government departments within one operational framework, which he said demonstrated the benefits of coordinated service delivery.

Apenisa Waqairadovu, a senior multimedia journalist with the Fijian Broadcasting Corporation, similarly praised the arrangement, noting that requests were received centrally and channelled to the relevant departments for action.

Jacky Achan, a multimedia journalist from Uganda, said the centre’s commitment to serving everyone, regardless of background or circumstances, was among her major takeaways.

She observed that digital tools helped ensure that complaints were captured and routed for attention, reinforcing the principle that public services should be accessible to all.

“It’s not just for a specific group of people, it’s for everyone,” she said, describing the centre as a demonstration of inclusive governance.

Mark Longyen, said Nigeria could explore adapting the model to strengthen communication between citizens and public institutions.

Longyen said a responsive system capable of addressing everyday concerns could make urban life easier, strengthen public confidence and demonstrate the practical value of technology in governance.

The centre’s development reflects Beijing’s efforts to consolidate public feedback into a coordinated mechanism for identifying problems, responding to complaints and improving municipal services.

In 2019, the city integrated more than 60 separate hotline services into the unified 12345 platform to make it easier for its approximately 21 million residents to seek assistance.

Since its establishment, the hotline has handled about 200 million cases involving individuals and businesses, with reported resolution and satisfaction rates exceeding 97 per cent.

Wang Hao said the visit offered the journalists an opportunity to consider how public feedback could contribute to more responsive urban administration.

He said the value of the experience lay not in copying China’s system wholesale, but in examining how cities could adapt its principles to local conditions and use citizens’ voices to inform better decisions.

Saudi Arabia’s energy minister has vowed a “serious” response to the deadly attacks on the kingdom’s airports and oil and gas facilities by Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi movement.

“The events of recent weeks are serious.

On Sunday, a Pakistani man was killed in an attack on a terminal at the capital’s King Khalid International Airport, Saudi authorities said. It came a day after a Houthi missile hit another terminal, killing 13 people and forcing its closure.

The Houthis said they launched the attacks in retaliation for “brutal Saudi aggression” against areas they control in western Yemen.

The Houthi-run health ministry said a child was killed and six other people were injured in a Saudi air strike on a home in the capital, Sanaa, on Sunday.

A Saudi-led coalition is providing air support for Yemeni pro-government forces battling the Houthis on Yemen’s Red Sea coast and other areas.

The WPC Energy Congress opened on Sunday at a convention centre about 10km (6 miles) from Riyadh’s airport, which has been attacked four times over the past week.

Last Thursday, three Saudis, including a pilot for the national airline Saudia, were killed in two strikes on an airport facility and an aircraft on the ground.

Another four Saudis, as well as two Bangladeshis, one American, one Egyptian, one Jordanian, one Syrian, one Palestinian, one Sudanese and one Indian, were killed in Saturday’s missile strike on Terminal 3.

On Sunday, a Pakistani resident was killed when a projectile hit Terminal 4, according to the General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA).

King Fahd International Airport in the north-eastern city of Dammam was also attacked on Sunday evening, it said, but no casualties were reported.

Later, the Saudi-led coalition said its forces had intercepted a drone in Eastern Province and a missile launched by the Houthis towards the south-western city of Khamis Mushait.

In his inaugural address to the WPC Energy Congress on Monday, Prince Abdul Aziz thanked industry executives and policymakers for attending despite the attacks.

But he also acknowledged that “energy security cannot be taken for granted” and that recent developments had “tested our infrastructure, our institutions, our people, and our resilience”.

Prince Abdul Aziz promised that his country would overcome those challenges.

There was no immediate comment from the Houthis.

On Sunday evening, Houthi military spokesman Yahya Sarea said in a video statement that its forces had launched missiles and drones at Riyadh and Dammam’s airports, as well as two oil and gas facilities in Eastern Province, in response to 124 Saudi air strikes in Yemen over the previous 24 hours.

Sarea also reiterated a warning to airlines and passengers against using Saudi airports and airspace, except for journeys to and from the Islamic holy cities of Mecca and Medina.

The Houthis’ forces, he vowed, would “continue their escalating operations deep inside Saudi, imposing the equation of ‘a blockade for a blockade’ and ‘an escalation for an escalation’ and targeting Saudi enemy reinforcements until the aggression ceases and the siege on our dear people is lifted”.

Saturday’s attack on Riyadh airport drew widespread international condemnation.

UN Secretary General António Guterres said he was “deeply shocked” and warned that attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure were a violation of international law.

President Donald Trump said he would “make a decision” about the US joining Saudi Arabia’s strikes on the Houthis. The US military is reportedly already providing intelligence and targeting support to the Saudi-led coalition.

Iran, which has repeatedly denied allegations that it provides weapons and training to the Houthis, said it was “deeply concerned” by the escalation and called for “dialogue and engagement” to resolve the situation.

Yemen has been devastated by a civil war that began in 2014, when the Houthis ousted the government from Sanaa. The conflict escalated in 2015, after the Saudi-led coalition intervened in an attempt to restore the government’s rule.

A four-year-old informal ceasefire began to unravel in July, when the Houthis announced a “maritime embargo” against Saudi Arabia and began missile and drone attacks on Saudi airports, oil facilities and tankers in the Red Sea.

The Houthis said they were retaliating for what they call a Saudi blockade of ports and airports in their territory, as well as an air strike on Sanaa airport that they blamed on the kingdom. The Yemeni government claimed it was behind that strike, saying it was trying to prevent an unauthorised Iranian plane from landing.

Last month, the Houthis launched a surprise offensive along Yemen’s south-western Red Sea coast and ousted pro-government forces from areas overlooking the Bab al-Mandab Strait, at the southern end of the Red Sea.

They said they posed no threat to international shipping passing through the waterway but that they would continue to target vessels from Saudi Arabia.

However, the seizure of the strait contributed to a surge in global oil prices because Saudi Arabia had been relying on the Red Sea for oil exports after the US and Israel’s war with Iran effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz in the Gulf.

Last week, the Yemeni government announced the start of a new offensive aimed at retaking all territory held by the Houthis.

Pro-government forces said they were quickly able to retake areas around Bab al-Mandab with the help of intense Saudi air strikes, but the Houthis denied losing any territory.