The war between the United States, Israel and Iran broadened over the weekend, even as Washington paused its air strikes on Iran, with Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthi movement striking Saudi oil installations on the Red Sea coast and Iran accusing Ukraine of attacking one of its vessels in the Caspian Sea.
The US military said on Saturday that its naval blockade of Iran "remains in full effect," but gave no explanation for why it had halted a streak of 13 consecutive nights of escalating strikes. There were also no reports over the weekend of retaliatory Iranian attacks on neighbouring countries, a departure from Tehran's near-daily responses to the US strikes up to that point.
Asked about the pause, a senior official in President Donald Trump's administration said Trump's preference has always been diplomacy, but that he had shown Iran the consequences of failing to negotiate seriously. According to the New York Times, citing two people briefed on the discussions, Trump has for now decided against ramping up attacks on Iran further, with the president and his advisers said to be concerned about a wider conflict, depleted defence stockpiles, alienating Gulf allies, and the impact on energy supplies and the global economy.
Vice President JD Vance and General Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, both raised concerns about US munitions stockpiles with Trump during a White House meeting on Friday, a US official told CNN. A Department of Defense source told the broadcaster that operations are "on hold."
The war threatens to spread to Yemen
Despite the pause in the Gulf, fighting between Iran's Houthi allies and Saudi Arabia on Saturday underlined how the conflict, which has already disrupted energy supplies through the Strait of Hormuz, could now affect a second major shipping route and reignite Yemen's civil war.
Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Saree said the group had struck sites belonging to Saudi state oil company Aramco in the cities of Jizan and Yanbu on Saturday. Reuters-verified social media video showed a large plume of smoke rising from the direction of the Aramco refinery in Jizan, which can process up to 400,000 barrels of crude oil a day. Two Asia-based trading sources said they had been told of possible damage to fuel and oil storage sites in Jizan; Aramco did not respond to a request for comment. In Yanbu, Saudi Arabia's main Red Sea oil port and a key route for oil bypassing the Iran-blockaded Strait of Hormuz, two missiles aimed at oil installations were intercepted.
In Yemen, officials said the air force of the Saudi-backed, internationally recognised government struck Houthi sites in Marib and al-Jawf provinces, with both sides reported to be mobilising forces along the front line. Saudi Arabia has led an Arab coalition against the Houthis since the group seized the capital, Sanaa, in a war that has killed hundreds of thousands through famine and fighting and has been under a ceasefire since 2022. That truce broke down this month, with the Houthis effectively joining the wider war their Iranian allies have waged since being attacked by the United States and Israel five months ago. The Houthis have declared a naval blockade of Saudi Arabia over the past week, with Houthi leader Abdul Malik al-Houthi saying all Saudi oil facilities could now be targeted.
A separate front in the Caspian
Iran's Foreign Ministry separately accused Ukraine of attacking an Iranian commercial vessel in the Caspian Sea, saying one sailor was killed and another injured. The ministry summoned Ukraine's chargé d'affaires in Tehran to protest over what it called a "hostile and criminal" attack, state news agency IRNA reported.
The accusation came as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Kyiv had noted that Russia was passing its satellite observations of the Middle East to Iran, to help direct strikes in the region.
Source: Reuters
