(AFP) – Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels claimed a missile attack on Saudi Arabia on Saturday as US President Donald Trump mulled fresh strikes on the Islamic republic in the deepening Middle East war. Houthi media said the rebels targeted the Saudi City of Jizan on the Red Sea, and Saudi civil defense issued warnings in the area on the kingdom’s southwest coast, as well as in Yanbu to the north. A post by Ansarollah media on Telegram said the strike had sparked fires, and a video circulating on social media, verified by AFP, showed dark clouds rising above a refinery belonging to Saudi oil giant Saudi Aramco in Jizan.
Earlier, the Iran-backed group accused US ally Saudi Arabia of a “dangerous escalation” after Riyadh struck Houthi targets on Friday. A Yemeni security source told AFP that a naval base in the port city of Hodeida and a military camp on Kamaran island were among the Saudi targets. The renewed exchange of fire between the US and Iranian allies signals the emergence of a new front in the Middle East war following US and Israeli strikes on Iran at the end of February.
Faiza, a 36-year-old mother of two and Hodeida resident, told AFP that the strikes were like “the sound of loud thunder”, explaining she had heard three distinct explosions. “I didn’t want to believe that we had gone back to strikes,” she added. Yemen’s Houthis have been at war with the internationally recognized, Saudi-backed government since 2015 in a devastating conflict that has killed hundreds of thousands and triggered a major humanitarian crisis. However, fighting in the poverty-stricken Arabian peninsula country had largely been frozen since a UN-negotiated truce in 2022.
This week, the Houthis announced a maritime blockade of the top oil producer, hitting Saudi tankers in the Red Sea. The threat to shipping comes in parallel to Iran’s blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, which has become the central flash point between Tehran and Washington amid renewed hostilities between the two sides. On Saturday, the US did not announce strikes on Iran for the first time after 13 nights of consecutive bombardments against the Islamic republic. Trump said he had not yet decided whether to launch major strikes on Iran, hours before the escalation between Saudi Arabia and Yemen, because Tehran was now getting “serious” in talks with Washington.
“No, I haven’t,” Trump told journalists in the Oval Office when asked if he had made a decision on hitting Iran hard. “Look, we’re talking to them right now. I think they’re getting more and more serious as the days go by, for maybe the obvious reason.” Trump said Iran had a choice between making a deal or facing a “much higher level” of strikes, after nearly two weeks of US attacks that have left an April ceasefire in tatters. The war that Trump once predicted would last four or five weeks is now nearing its fifth month and is weighing on the Republican’s approval ratings ahead of crucial US midterm elections in November.
Trump added that he did not know what the “tipping point” would be for a decision, but reiterated that his red line would be if Iran was close to developing a nuclear weapon. The United States says it is carrying out the strikes to stop Iran from closing the crucial Strait of Hormuz. Iran has responded with strikes on US bases that have killed four service members. The Iranian military said Friday it had carried out attacks targeting US military assets in Bahrain, Jordan, and Kuwait. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, meanwhile, said they had targeted an Amazon data center in Bahrain, according to state media, though neither the US tech giant nor Bahrain has commented on the claim. There was also no confirmation from the United States of any targeting of its facilities or personnel.
© 2024 AFP
