Houthis claim attacks on Saudi oil facility and Yemeni port, and other Mideast news
Yemen’s Iranian-backed Houthi rebels on Sunday struck a government-held port on the country's Red Sea coast, killing several people and deepening fears over threats to strategic Middle East shipping routes and a potential return to civil war. They also said they attacked an oil facility in neighboring Saudi Arabia.
Meanwhile, Israel rejected a deal announced by President Donald Trump for Gaza. Details emerged on the potential deal between Iran and Oman on managing the Strait of Hormuz. And the Pentagon is pressing the U.S. defense industry to accelerate weapons production as concerns about shortages grow.
Here’s a look at developments across the Middle East. Full coverage can be found here.
The Yemeni government-allied National Resistance Forces said at least seven people — four troops and three civilians — were killed and 15 civilians were injured in the Houthi attack on the port of Mokha.
Fayed al-Noman, the information ministry's assistant undersecretary, said the rebels fired missiles and drones, severely damaging port buildings and piers as well as commercial goods and food supplies. The military later said missiles landed in several areas, including near a television channel.
Mokha is a main port under Yemen’s internationally recognized government and has been renovated to handle shipping that avoids the Houthi-held port of Hodeida.
The Houthis claimed the attack, saying they targeted military forces and warehouses.
Yahya Saree, a Houthi military spokesperson, said they also targeted an Aramco refinery in the Saudi city of Jazan with a drone in response to Saudi drones’ breaching Yemen’s airspace over Hajjah and Saada provinces.
The Saudi Energy Ministry reported a fire at a facility belonging to the Aramco refinery, with no casualties. The ministry did not say the cause.
The attacks threaten to reignite Yemen's civil war after a 2022 truce.
— Samy Magdy in Cairo
The Strait of Hormuz, crucial to global supplies of oil and natural gas, was considered an international waterway before the war.
Iran and Oman, which bracket the strait, are working to finalize a temporary deal that would reopen it, with ships entering near Iran and exiting near Oman, according to two people familiar with the talks who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly. Ships would transit without paying fees or tolls during the interim period.
The agreement is designed to restore an earlier, separate agreement between the U.S. and Iran.
According to the two people, the deal is endorsed by Gulf Cooperation Council members and is expected to be jointly announced by Iran, Oman, the United States and the U.N.'s International Maritime Organization. But the people stressed the terms could change before the deal is final.
Iran on Sunday signaled progress on a plan to manage the strait, but a lawmaker said transits by vessels belonging to “hostile countries” would be prohibited.
Parliament’s National Security Committee approved “general outlines,” the state broadcaster reported. It cited a member of parliament’s presiding board as saying countries that have “caused damage” to Iran cannot transit until they compensate for it. There were no further details.
Semiofficial outlets Fars and Tasnim cited the lawmaker as saying the plan was under expert review and that the U.S. and Israel were among the “hostile countries.”
— Michelle Price in Washington and Aamer Madhani in New York
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told reporters that negotiations with Oman about “new maritime routes” were in the final stages but “this, however, does not mean that the Strait of Hormuz will reopen.” That step requires conditions that “have been conveyed through intermediaries.”
Iran’s powerful Supreme National Security Council on Saturday said the strait will not reopen until the U.S. “corrects its behavior.”
Tehran’s demands include that the U.S. never threaten Iran again, a permanent end to the war with Iran and its armed allies, a lifting of the naval blockade of Iranian ports and a withdrawal of U.S. military from the area. The U.S. also must “completely compensate” Iran for war damage, lift sanctions and “unconditionally” release frozen assets.
Araghchi also said an “exchange of messages through intermediaries” continues with the U.S., but that doesn’t constitute negotiations, which he said can’t resume until violations of the countries’ interim deal end and the U.S. “has remedied” provisions it violated.
The U.S. Central Command has said its blockade had redirected 53 commercial vessels, disabled two and boarded two through Saturday.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected the deal on Gaza announced by Trump last month, saying Israel’s military “will not carry out any withdrawal until Hamas is genuinely disarmed.”
Netanyahu told a Cabinet meeting that Israel is still discussing plans for Gaza with the U.S. Trump had said Israeli forces would withdraw from the Palestinian territory as the Hamas militant group's disarmament is completed. Israeli forces control over half the enclave.
“We remain committed to the road map," said Bassem Naim, a member of the Hamas political bureau, adding that it expects mediators and the U.S. to pressure Netanyahu. The Hamas-led attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, sparked the war in Gaza. A fragile ceasefire continues.
Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell on Saturday said the department was focused on boosting munitions acquisitions to provide “the weapons our warfighters need at the pace the threat demands.”
The war with Iran has used up more of the U.S. military’s already diminished stockpiles of advanced missile interceptors, says a new analysis from the Center for Strategic and International Studies. The shortage has caused concern among allies like Ukraine and Taiwan who seek more U.S. military support.
Parnell's statement said the push was part of a broader modernization effort that predated the war that began with U.S. and Israeli attacks on Feb. 28.
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