ATHENS/WASHINGTON: Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi militants fired on Saudi oil installations in two ports on the Red Sea coast on Saturday, but the United States held back from launching air strikes on Iran itself for the first night in two weeks. There was no immediate explanation from Washington of why it had abruptly halted a streak of 13 nights of escalating strikes since an interim deal to end hostilities collapsed, in retaliation for Iranian attacks on shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.
“It seems that our dear Iran had a peaceful night last night,” Health Ministry spokesperson Hossein Kermanpour said on X.
After the quiet night in Iran, there were also no reports on Saturday of attacks from Iran on its Gulf neighbours, which have also been taking place daily in response to the US attacks.
However, the strikes from Iran’s Houthi allies on Saudi Arabia were a sign that the war that has disrupted energy supplies from the Gulf could be spreading to a second major shipping route, and reigniting Yemen’s own civil war.
Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Saree said the group had successfully struck sites belonging to Saudi state oil giant Aramco in Jizan and Yanbu. Video shared on social media and verified by Reuters showed a large column of smoke rising from the direction of the Aramco refinery in Jizan.
Two Asia-based trading sources said that they had been informed of potential damage to fuel and oil storage sites at Jizan. Aramco 2222.SE did not respond to requests for comment.
In Yanbu, two ballistic missiles aimed at oil installations were intercepted by a US-made Patriot battery operated in Saudi Arabia by the Greek military under an agreement with Riyadh, Greek security sources said.
Yanbu is Saudi Arabia’s main Red Sea oil port, where millions of barrels a day are loaded, and has become the main route out for Saudi oil skirting the Strait of Hormuz, which has been blockaded by Iran. Jizan, on the Red Sea close to the Yemeni border, is the site of a refinery with a capacity of 400,000 barrels per day.
In Yemen, the air force of the Saudi-backed, internationally recognised government, which has opposed the Houthis for more than a decade, struck Houthi missile and drone launch sites and arms depots in the Marib and al-Jawf provinces, Yemeni officials said.
Earlier, the Saudi-led military alliance said it had bombed Houthi military positions on Friday in the Red Sea port of Hodeidah. The Yemeni officials said both sides in Yemen’s civil war were mobilising forces along the front.
Saudi Arabia has led an Arab coalition battling against the Houthis for more than a decade since the Iran-aligned fighters captured Yemen’s capital, Sanaa.
The Yemeni civil war, during which hundreds of thousands of people died from fighting and famine, has been paused under a ceasefire since 2022. But that truce broke down this month, with the Houthis effectively joining the wider war their Iranian allies have waged since being attacked by the US and Israel.
The Houthis have declared a naval blockade of Saudi Arabia over the past week, and Houthi leader Abdul Malik al-Houthi said all Saudi oil facilities could be targets.
The move has contributed in recent days to one of the war’s sharpest rises in global oil prices. Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said that there was no military solution to the escalating conflict between Saudi Arabia and the Tehran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen, after both sides traded attacks.
”We believe that there is no military solution to the issue of Yemen, Bab al-Mandab, and other regional issues,” said Araghchi in an interview published on Saturday by the state-run Iran Daily newspaper, calling for “dialogue”.
He said the situation in Yemen “cannot be attributed to Iran” and that the incidents in the Bab al-Mandab Strait were “rooted in old disputes and issues between Yemen, Saudi Arabia and the countries of the region”. Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei made similar remarks, expressing Tehran’s readiness to facilitate any talks between the two sides. “Returning to the path of dialogue and the full implementation of the agreed roadmap is the only way to end the suffering of the Yemeni people and maintain security and stability in the region,” Baqaei said.
The Yemeni government air force on Saturday carried out airstrikes on Houthi missile and drone launch sites and arms depots in the Marib and al-Jawf provinces along the front line with the Iran-aligned group, two Yemeni military officials said.
Iran´s Revolutionary Guards said on Saturday their forces stopped four ships attempting to transit the strategic Strait of Hormuz over the past 24 hours.
A tanker was involved in an encounter with military forces in the Gulf of Oman on Friday, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations agency said on Saturday. UKMTO advised vessels to consult the latest maritime security information and remain alert to the evolving operational environment.
An air defence system operated by Greek military personnel in Saudi Arabia intercepted two ballistic missiles launched from Yemen on Saturday targeting oil refineries in Yanbu, Greek security sources told Reuters.
Iranian Oil Minister Mohsen Paknejad said Iran sold $11.5 billion worth of oil during the war and a further $6.5 billion during a ceasefire, when lower risks to tanker traffic helped increase exports and enabled the sale of part of around 100 million barrels of stored crude oil and gas condensate.
The sales generated more than 60 per cent of the oil revenue forecast in Iran’s annual budget, Paknejad said.
Qatar’s transport ministry said maritime navigation activities to fully resume for all types of marine transport and vessels from July 26. Iraqi air defences shot down a drone near the US consulate in the Kurdistan Region capital of Erbil on Saturday, security sources told Reuters.
The US military fired on a tanker that was trying to breach its blockade of Iranian ports, a US official said on Friday, disabling the vessel.
American forces disabled the M/T Lavine in the Gulf of Oman on Friday after the ship attempted to run the blockade , the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Iran’s Fars news agency, citing an unnamed informed source, said on Friday that a US missile strike on an LPG tanker in the Gulf of Oman killed two crew members and damaged its engine room, disabling the vessel. Fars said the United States believed the tanker was carrying Iranian gas.
Kuwait´s state-owned petroleum firm has signed a $16 billion pipeline infrastructure deal with international private equity giants Blackstone, KKR and Brookfield, it announced Saturday.
Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC) said its oil subsidiary had signed a lease-and-lease-back agreement for the “entire domestic and export pipeline network” with the international consortium.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Saturday that Ukraine had noted Russia was passing on its satellite observations in the Middle East to Iran to enable it to direct strikes in the region.
“Since the beginning of July, we have recorded active Russian satellite surveillance of the Gulf states and U.S. military facilities located there. These images subsequently appear in Iran,” Zelenskiy said in comments on X.
“At the same time, there is a clear correlation between Russia’s satellite imagery of these sites and Iranian strikes – both before the attacks, in preparation for them, and afterward, to assess the damage inflicted.” Iran’s Foreign Ministry condemned a Ukrainian attack on an Iranian commercial vessel in the Caspian Sea, saying on Saturday it resulted in an explosion that killed one sailor and injured another. Tehran described the incident as an act of aggression and said it would defend its national interests and security, while accusing Ukraine of seeking to expand the Russia-Ukraine war. Ukraine’s forces struck a Russian warship and vessels used for transporting Iran-linked military cargo in the Caspian Sea, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Saturday.
Meanwhile, Deputy Prime Minister/Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar spoke with the Foreign Minister of Saudi Arabia, Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud, the Foreign Office said in a statement.
It said the two leaders exchanged views on the latest regional developments and reaffirmed the close and brotherly ties between Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. “They underscored the importance of continued diplomacy and shared their commitment to promoting constructive engagement, peace, and stability in the region,” it added.
A spokesperson for Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said that Britain would become a “definite and legitimate target” if it supported the US in any war with Tehran, according to Iranian state broadcaster IRIB.
Axios, citing two unidentified sources familiar with the matter, said President Donald Trump on Friday directed the military not to conduct new strikes against Iran. On Saturday, a senior US official told Reuters that Trump “has always been clear that his preference is diplomacy, but he has shown Iran what will happen if they fail to come to the table in a serious way.”
