Yemen’s Houthi rebels said Sunday they launched an attack on an oil facility in southwestern Saudi Arabia, marking the latest strike by the Iran-backed group against the kingdom. The claim came as Iran set out fresh conditions tied to reopening the Strait of Hormuz, while the Pentagon pushed U.S. defense manufacturers to speed up weapons production.
Here are the key Middle East developments on Sunday. Full coverage can be found here.
Houthis say they struck Aramco refinery
Yahya Saree, the Houthis’ military spokesperson, said the group targeted an Aramco refinery in the Saudi city of Jazan using a drone. He described the operation as retaliation for what he said were Saudi drone violations of Yemeni airspace over the provinces of Hajjah and Saada.
Earlier Sunday, Saudi Arabia’s Energy Ministry said a fire had broken out at a facility belonging to the Aramco refinery, adding that no casualties were reported. The ministry said the blaze was brought under control, but it did not specify what caused it.
The reported Houthi strike is part of a wider pattern of missile and drone attacks aimed at Saudi Arabia and shipping routes in the Red Sea. The renewed escalation has raised fears that Yemen’s civil war could flare again, more than four years after a 2022 truce halted major fighting in the impoverished Arab nation.
— by Samy Magdy in Cairo.
Iran says the Strait of Hormuz will not reopen until the U.S. ‘corrects’ its behavior
Iran’s powerful Supreme National Security Council said the Strait of Hormuz will not open until the United States “corrects its behavior,” issuing new demands that could shake up talks on a deal to manage the waterway.
Iran’s state broadcaster published the statement by the council’s secretary, Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr, who is also a commander in the powerful Revolutionary Guard.
The United States must never threaten Iran again, the statement said, and must permanently end the war with Iran and its armed allies in the region. The U.S. must lift the naval blockade of Iranian ports and withdraw its military from the area. It must “completely compensate” Iran for war damage, lift sanctions and “unconditionally” release frozen assets.
The U.S., which has wanted an acceptable deal first on the strait before ending the blockade, had no immediate comment. According to the interim deal signed in June, a schedule to end sanctions and plan on compensation would be part of the final deal, and negotiations would address frozen assets.
Pentagon pushes boost in weapons production
Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in a statement Saturday that the department was actively focused on boosting munitions acquisitions to provide “the weapons our warfighters need at the pace the threat demands.”
The war with Iran has used up more of the U.S. military’s already diminished stockpiles of advanced missile interceptors, says a new analysis from the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank.
Parnell said the push for speedier delivery was part of a broader modernization effort that predated the five-month-old conflict.
Details emerge about potential Iran-Oman deal
The Strait of Hormuz, crucial to global supplies of oil and natural gas, was considered an international waterway before the war.
But Iran and Oman are working to finalize a temporary deal that would reopen the strait with ships entering the strait through a route close to Iran and exiting through a route close to Oman, according to two people familiar with the talks who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.
Ships would cross the strait without paying fees or tolls during the interim period.
The agreement is designed to restore an earlier, separate agreement between the U.S. and Iran and restart a 60-day clock for the two countries to negotiate over Iran’s nuclear program.
According to the two people who spoke about the talks, the deal is endorsed by members of the Gulf Cooperation Council and expected when finalized to be jointly announced by Iran, Oman, the U.S., and the International Maritime Organization of the United Nations. But the people stressed the terms could still change before the deal is final.
— by Michelle Price in Washington and Aamer Madhani in New York.
