NewzEarlier, the Saudi Arabian Energy Ministry said that firefighters extinguished a fire that broke out early at a facility at Aramco's Jazan refinery in southwestern Saudi Arabia. The Yemeni threat to shipping and Saudi oil facilities comes in parallel with Iran's blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, which has become the central flashpoint between Tehran and Washington. (AFP pic)SANAA: Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi rebels said on Sunday they had struck an oil facility on Saudi Arabia's Red Sea coast after the Gulf kingdom said it had extinguished a fire at the site.The group's military spokesman Yahya Saree said the Houthis had "succeeded in targeting the Aramco refinery in Jizan with a drone, and the strike was precise", adding the attack had been launched in response to Saudi drone incursions into northwest Yemen.Aramco is Saudi Arabia's state-owned oil company.A 2022 truce in Yemen's civil war, which Saudi Arabia entered more than a decade ago on the side of the internationally recognised government, appeared to have collapsed last month, with the Houthis announcing a maritime blockade of its northern neighbour and hitting Saudi tankers in the Red Sea.The Houthis control vast swathes of Yemen, including the capital Sanaa and areas on the border with Saudi Arabia's Red Sea provinces.The Yemeni threat to shipping and Saudi oil facilities comes in parallel with Iran's blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, which has become the central flashpoint between Tehran and Washington amid efforts to end the Middle East war begun by the US and Israel in February.Earlier, Saudi Arabia's energy ministry said civil response teams had brought under control a fire at the Jizan refinery without giving the cause of the blaze.The facility was also targeted by Yemen's Houthi rebels in July."Saudi Aramco's industrial security firefighting teams extinguished a fire that broke out at dawn today, Sunday, at one of the facilities belonging to the Saudi Aramco refinery in Jizan, without any injuries," the ministry said.
Yemen’s Houthis said they attacked an oil facility Sunday in southwestern Saudi Arabia, the latest attack by the Iranian-backed rebels on the kingdom. Meanwhile, Iran has made new demands about the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, and the Pentagon is pressing the U.S. defense industry to accelerate production of weapons.
Here’s a look at developments across the Middle East on Sunday. Houthis target Aramco refinery Yahya Saree, a military spokesperson for the Houthis, said they targeted an Aramco refinery in the city of Jazan with a drone. The attack was in response to Saudi drones’ breaching Yemen’s airspace over the provinces of Hajjah and Saada, he said.
Early on Sunday, the Saudi Energy Ministry reported a fire at a facility belonging to the Aramco refinery without casualties. The ministry said the fire was extinguished but it didn’t describe its cause. Sunday’s Houthi attack is the latest in a series of missile and drone attacks that targeted Saudi Arabia and its shipping in the Red Sea.
The escalation threatens to reignite Yemen’s civil war more than four years after a 2022 truce stopped major fighting in the impoverished Arab country. Iran says the strait won’t open until the US ‘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. 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.
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