CAIRO: Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels said Saturday they fired missiles and drones at Saudi Arabia in response to a Saudi airstrike on the strategically important Red Sea city of Hodeida, escalating tensions over vital shipping routes in the Middle East as the United States and Iran compete for control of the Strait of Hormuz. Brig. Houthis military spokesman Gen. Yahya Sari said in a pre-recorded statement that the attack targeted facilities in the Red Sea cities of Yanbu and Jizan, which belong to Aramco, the world’s largest oil company. Saudi Arabia’s Civil Defense said multiple alerts were issued in both cities on Saturday morning, but the kingdom had no further comment. There were apparently no attacks reported overnight in Iran, compared to nearly two weeks of consecutive nights in the US
cjp jantar mantar protest update
Attack. Increasing tensions in the Red Sea further threaten global shipping. The Houthis have said they will close the Bab al-Mandeb strait to Saudi-linked shipping in response to the kingdom’s blockade of Yemen and a recent attack on the international airport in Yemen’s rebel-held capital Sanaa. “Nothing short of ending the aggression and lifting the blockade, otherwise, this is all an illusion and a mirage,” Mahdi al-Mashat, head of the Houthi-led Supreme Political Council that rules rebel-held areas in Yemen, said of what it would take for the Houthis not to block the Bab al-Mandeb. That strait is a vital shipping chokepoint connecting the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden, at the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula. About 12% of the world’s trade, including a quarter of its container traffic, passes through the narrow passage. The Houthis targeted two Saudi oil tankers in the Red Sea this week. In response, Saudi Arabia attacked Hodeida, the Saudi-led coalition opposing the rebels said on Saturday. The strikes late Friday hit the port and the state-run telecommunications corporation, injuring two, said Anis al-Asbahi, a spokesman for the Houthi-run health ministry. The Saudi-led coalition said it did not attack the port, but instead attacked “legitimate military targets” in Hodeida province that were “linked to threats to commercial vessels in the Red Sea.” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi called for “diplomacy and dialogue” to resolve the Yemen conflict without “military confrontation” in an interview published by the state-run Iran newspaper on Saturday. Iran condemned the Ukrainian attack on the commercial ship, with Iran’s health ministry spokesman Hossein Karmanpour posting on Twitter, “Iran had a peaceful night.” US Central Command did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Unlike the previous 13 nights, it did not announce new strikes. But Iran’s Foreign Ministry on Saturday condemned the Ukrainian attack on an Iranian commercial ship in the Caspian Sea that killed one person and injured another, calling it an act of aggression. In a separate statement, Araghchi said he spoke to EU foreign policy chief Kaza Kallas about this and demanded that Tehran respond. Iranian state media reported that Ukraine’s diplomatic representative in Iran was summoned. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky earlier said on X that Ukraine had “achieved very strong results with long-range attacks in the Caspian Sea – including against ships used in military cargo shipments linked to Iran.” While mediation efforts between the US and Iran continue, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu plans to visit the United States next week and meet with President Donald Trump in Washington on Tuesday, his office said on Friday. They met for the last time in Washington in February, a few weeks before the start of the war. More than 7,000 people have died, including in Lebanon. A tenuous ceasefire that halted major operations for several weeks appears to be unraveling this month. The US accused Iran of attacking three ships in the Strait of Hormuz and responded by attacking dozens of targets in Iran, which responded by firing at US-allied Gulf Arab states. The US military has resumed its blockade of Iran’s ports. Iran’s Revolutionary Guard has advised residents of neighboring countries to stay away from bases with US troops. The war has killed more than 3,400 people in Iran, according to the health ministry. Eighteen US service members, 24 civilians in Israel, and a smaller number of civilians, including foreign workers and sailors, have reportedly been killed throughout the region. In Lebanon, more than 4,000 people have been killed since Iran-backed Hezbollah militants opened fire on Israel in support of the Islamic Republic two days after the war began and Israel responded with strikes and ground forces. Thirty-eight Israeli soldiers have also been killed.