Nayera Abdallah, Eman Abouhassira and Timour Azhari
Updated ,first published
Dubai/Riyadh: Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis said they would impose a naval blockade on Saudi Arabia, opening a potential new front against the US in its war with Iran and raising the threat to global energy supplies and trade beyond the Gulf.
The Houthis made their announcement despite signs that Tehran and Washington want to resume diplomacy to halt a worsening cycle of attacks that has all but wrecked a fragile interim agreement signed last month.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry said mediators had presented “proposals” to Tehran, signalling that diplomatic contacts remain active, but gave no details.
Oil prices rose briefly after the Houthi statement, but later fell back as traders held out hope of a diplomatic breakthrough. The insurance cost of shipping goods through the Red Sea rose on the increased risks for merchant shipping.
Even so, the US President Donald Trump ordered a new round of strikes against Iran – the 10th consecutive night of attacks – that started about 6am on Tuesday (AEST).
Shortly after, Iranian state television said an explosion had been heard in the coastal cities of Bandar Abbas, Chabahar and Konarak. Air defence systems were also activated near Iran’s Bushehr nuclear power plant, Mehr reported.
About 8am on Tuesday (AEST), the Iranian army said it had targeted US missile systems at Kuwait’s Arifjan base with surface-to-surface missiles, Iranian state TV reported. Earlier, Kuwait’s state news agency reported sirens were sounding.
Meanwhile, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations centre said it had received multiple reports that a tanker had been struck by unknown projectile in Strait of Hormuz, near Limah in Oman.
The US military said it finished its latest round of strikes at 11am on Tuesday (AEST). “US forces struck Iranian military command centres, maritime capabilities, missile and drone launch sites, and air defence systems to degrade Iran’s ability to continue attacking commercial vessels flowing through the Strait of Hormuz,” it said in a statement.
Iran had been pressing the Houthis to close the Bab el-Mandeb gateway to the Red Sea if the US continued to attack Iranian power infrastructure.
The full closure of the Bab el-Mandeb strait would reduce global oil supply by 7 per cent as it would leave most of Saudi oil exports unable to leave the region. The disruption would add to the huge cut to oil flows from the war in the Gulf, which has already reduced shipments by 10 per cent of global supply.
In their statement, the Houthis’ armed forces said they were declaring “a maritime embargo against the criminal Saudi enemy, based on the equation of ‘an eye for an eye’, effective immediately” in response to what they called “an unjust and oppressive siege” imposed on Yemen by the Saudis.
Saudi Arabia on Tuesday (AEST) condemned the Houthi naval blockade announcement and their statements accusing Riyadh of “besieging” the Yemeni people.
The Saudi-led coalition in Yemen said it would respond to Houthis threats to ships with “force” and began to implement safety measures for its ships passing through Bab el-Mandeb Strait. “Such threats are a blatant violation of international law and falls under acts of maritime piracy,” the coalition said
“The question now is whether [the Houthis] will begin targeting vessels heading to Saudi ports. At this stage, there’s no clear answer,” said Mohammed Albasha, a Yemeni analyst and founder of Basha Report, a Washington-based risk advisory firm. “Even if no ships are attacked, the announcement alone is likely to disrupt shipping and create uncertainty for Saudi ports. Whether the Houthis move from threats to direct action remains the critical issue.”
The group fired missiles at Saudi Arabia last week after accusing the kingdom of bombing an airport under their control, piercing a four-year truce in the conflict between the kingdom and the Iran-aligned group
Meanwhile, a senior Iranian official told Reuters on Monday (Iran time) that Tehran had received a proposal from mediators for a 10-day ceasefire in efforts to salvage the interim deal, intended to pave the way to a lasting agreement to end the war that began on February 28 with US-Israeli attacks on Iran.
Neither the ministry nor the official who spoke to Reuters gave any details on the putative ceasefire discussions. Two Pakistani government sources said separately that Iranian Interior Minister Eskandar Momeni had asked Pakistan to resume its mediation role in the conflict. He later arrived in Islamabad for further talks.
The diplomatic push followed another night of US strikes on Iranian cities and attacks by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards on US military assets across the region.
Trump, under mounting political pressure at home over rising petrol prices since the war began and Iran effectively closed the vital Strait of Hormuz, defended the recent strikes on Iran as honouring the deaths of up to three American service members in recent Iranian attacks.
Two US Army soldiers killed in Iranian attacks on Jordan were identified on Monday as First Lieutenant James Feehan, 25, of Ewa Beach, Hawaii, and Private Isabella Gonzales, 19, of Carrollton, Texas, were killed in Jordan in Friday’s attacks. Official also said this week that they had found unidentified remains that could be those of a third soldier reported as missing in the Jordan attacks
An American service member was also killed in northern Iraq on Saturday during a “controlled detonation” of unexploded ordnance from a downed Iranian drone.
“Every time Iran kills an American Soldier they will pay for that killing many times over! This directive has been passed on to Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Daniel Caine, and every Leader in the Military,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Monday.
The Pentagon on Monday (US time) revealed that nearly 100 US troops had been injured in the war over the past two weeks. Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in a post on X that most of the injuries were minor concussions and “96 per cent” had since returned to duty.
The war has killed thousands of people, mostly in Iran and Lebanon, part of which has been occupied by Israeli forces following attacks on Israel by Hezbollah fighters who said they were acting in solidarity with Tehran.
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun is due to meet Trump at the White House on Tuesday to present a plan on how to disarm Iran-aligned Hezbollah and secure an Israeli withdrawal.
Israel also still has forces in Gaza following two years of war ignited by the Palestinian militant group Hamas’ attack on southern Israeli communities on October 7, 2023. Hamas said on Monday it had named top negotiator Khalil Al-Hayya as its overall leader, a move that an analyst said could signal a tougher stance by the group towards calls for it to disarm.
US Central Command said its ninth consecutive night of strikes against Iran aimed at weakening its ability to attack commercial vessels in the strait. The US military also said it redirected seven commercial vessels and disabled one as part of a US naval blockade of Iranian ports.
In Iran, explosions were reported in Tabriz, Chabahar, Konarak, Bandar Mahshahr and Bandar Imam Khomeini. One person was killed and several wounded southwest of Tabriz, according to state news agency IRNA.
The IRGC said it targeted US aircraft at Jordan’s Aqaba airport with ballistic missiles, as well as military assets at Kuwait’s Al-Adiri camp and Ali Al Salem Air Base, and positions in Syria. Sirens sounded in Bahrain throughout Monday. Kuwait’s army said it again intercepted Iranian drones.
Reuters
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