Iran latest: Houthis claim attack on Saudi base as advance intensifies

New strikes on Saudi Arabia and on ships in the Gulf tested nerves in the Middle East on Sunday, after an attack on a Saudi oil pipeline and an advance by Yemen’s Houthis threatened to worsen the wartime disruption to global energy supplies.

Oil traders were expecting prices to rise again when markets reopen on Monday, following the weekend developments that jeopardise supplies from the world’s biggest exporter, Saudi Arabia.

The British maritime security agency UKMTO said on Sunday that a vessel had been struck by a projectile ⁠as it moved through the Strait of Hormuz, causing a fire and forcing the crew to be evacuated. Iran, for its part, said one person was killed and four crew wounded aboard an Iranian commercial vessel struck off its coast.

In Saudi Arabia, state media released video of damage to homes and a mosque from the purported latest cross-border attack by the Houthis, in Jazan province in the south. The Houthis claimed separately to have struck a Saudi military base in a neighbouring province.

Southern Saudi cities have experienced regular alerts since last week, culminating in drone strikes on Friday that knocked out the 1,200-km (745-mile) east-west pipeline across the Arabian Peninsula that has served as the main route for global supplies of Middle East oil bypassing the Strait of Hormuz.

That same day, the Houthis captured Perim ⁠Island, which lies in the middle of the Bab El-Mandeb, the “Gate of Tears” strait that controls the mouth of the Red ​Sea.

Iranian state media has reported several explosions heard in Iran’s Sirik Island.

Yemen’s Houthi rebels have ramped up attacks on Saudi Arabia and pushed west towards the Bab al-Mandab Strait.

Being closer to the Red Sea will make it easier to launch strikes on Saudi oil tankers, which are reliant on the strait with the Strait of Hormuz out of action thanks to Iran.

Edmund Fitton-Brown, former British ambassador to Yemen, told The Independent that after months of attacks at sea, the Houthis “think the moment has come to call the Saudi bluff”.

“They think the Saudis have lost the stomach for the fight. They think that they showed themselves to be weak and frightened in the face of the Iranians,” he said.

“And the Houthis think that this is the moment where they can effectively raise their demands and get the Saudis to concede even more advantageous terms than they were previously willing to do.”

The risk for the Houthis, said Mr Fitton-Brown, is that the Saudis “seem inclined to fight back” – although so far their allies in Turkey, Pakistan and the United States are yet to join the cause.

The UN Security council has been warned that the international community must act to address “a new and more dangerous phase” in the Yemen war.

Hans Grundberg, the UN Special Envoy for Yemen, told a UN said the Houthis’ gaining control of Mocha gave them “a direct presence on the approaches to one of the world’s most vital straits.”

Speaking to the council on Thursday, he said: “When I briefed this council last month, I warned that Yemen was facing the greatest risk of a return to large-scale conflict since the 2022 truce. That risk has now turned into a harsh reality.

“This renewed war should alarm us all. It effectively marks the end of the relative calm that Yemen has experienced for over four years since the UN-brokered truce.

“It not only threatens to plunge Yemen into a prolonged and expanding war, but also risks yet again dragging the country into the wider and unresolved regional confrontation, with global repercussions.”

A meeting in Oman between ⁠Iran and Gulf Arab states, scheduled for ⁠Monday ​to ⁠discuss possible agreements ⁠on the ​Strait of ⁠Hormuz, ‌was postponed at the ‌request of some ‌regional countries in ⁠a decision jointly made by Tehran and Muscat, Fars news agency ‌reported, citing ​an ‌Iranian foreign ministry ⁠official.

Yemen’s Houthi rebels claimed on Sunday to have struck facilities at a military base in Saudi Arabia as the burgeoning conflict threatens to throw the region back into chaos.

Houthi spokesperson Yahya Saree said that the Iran-backed group had targeted “weapons depots and command and control centers” at the southern Sharurah base.

Saree claimed that a joint ballistic missile and drone attack hit its targets and warned of wider measures if the Saudi attacks on Yemen continue.

The escalation follows a lightning Houthi advance to the Red Sea coast this week, giving the group greater power to attack Saudi ships around the Bab-al Mandeb strait.

Oil hovered around $100 per barrel on Sunday amid growing fears the clashes could drag in the US to help its ally in Riyadh, prolonging the six-month conflict with Iran to the east.

Speaking earlier in Doonbeg, on his last day of a two-day non-state visit to Ireland, president Trump tells reporters the Iran war could end “maybe before or right after the midterms”.

“Iran will end right after – maybe before – but it’ll end right after the midterms. Gasoline’s going to drop like a rock,” Trump told reporters at the Irish Open golf championship.

He insisted – again – that Iran “wants to make a deal so bad”.

“They are calling constantly,” he said. “They want to make a deal. They’ve got to make the right deal. I’m not going to make a deal that’s no good.”

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman made two phone calls to President Donald Trump on Thursday, pressing him to execute military strikes targeting Houthi forces, according to an Axios report citing two American officials.

Trump turned down the request, with U.S. officials stating the administration currently has no intention of taking direct military action against the Houthis.

Neither the White House nor the Saudi embassy in Washington immediately responded to requests for comment outside standard business hours, and the details could not be independently verified.

President Donald Trump suggested on Sunday the United States could stay in Iran and “keep the oil”, drawing a ⁠parallel with a US push to take control of a fifth of Venezuela’s vast oil reserves.

On a trip to Ireland for meetings and to watch golf, ⁠he reiterated that he still ​expected ⁠the Iran war to end this year, possibly just after midterm elections due in the ⁠United States in November.

Speaking at the Irish Open ​golf ⁠championship, Trump added that the ‌price of gasoline would “drop like a rock” once the Iran war ended.

Turmoil in the Middle East ‌has roiled oil markets, with oil traders ‌expecting prices to rise again on Monday after an attack on a Saudi oil pipeline.

Trump said that he would ⁠only make the “right deal” and wouldn’t do one that was “no good”, adding that Iran was “calling constantly” for peace talks — an assertion that Tehran has dismissed in the past.

But the president also introduced another option: stay engaged with Iran. He drew a parallel with ‌the US deal in Venezuela, announced in ​August.

“We’ll ultimately get out (of Iran), unless we ‌decide to stay and keep ⁠the oil like Venezuela,” Trump said, adding ⁠that the US revenue from Venezuela has “paid for the war ‌many times.”