Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels said they had launched missile and drone salvos against Saudi Arabia’s oil facilities on Saturday, as fighting between regional allies of the United States and Iran intensified on a new front.
In a video statement, military spokesman Yahya Saree said the rebels targeted sites operated by the Saudi oil giant Aramco in Jizan and Yanbu, threatening to expand the group’s response if attacked by the Gulf monarchy. Earlier, the rebels’ media had said a strike on Jizan had sparked fires.
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.
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 been largely frozen since a UN-negotiated truce in 2022.
Meanwhile, the US did not announce strikes on Iran, a first after 13 nights of consecutive bombardments. According to a report on US media, the Pentagon had presented US President Donald Trump with a plan for a 14th night of strikes, but Trump had decided not to authorize it, favoring a push for renewed talks.
“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 told journalists.
Nevertheless, Trump said Friday he had not yet decided whether to return to an all-out major operation against Iran.
Trump said Iran had a choice between making a deal or facing a “much higher level” of strikes, after two weeks of US attacks left an April ceasefire in tatters. (AFP)
