Houthis fire on Saudi oil sites; no US strike on Iran for first time in two weeks

ATHENS/WASHINGTON - Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi militants fired on Saudi oil installations in two ports on the Red Sea coast on July 25, but the US held back from launching air strikes on Iran for the first night in two weeks.

Washington gave no immediate explanation of why it had abruptly halted a streak of 13 nights of escalating strikes in retaliation for Iranian attacks on shipping in the Strait of Hormuz since an interim deal to end hostilities collapsed.

“It seems that our dear Iran had a peaceful night last night,” Health Ministry spokesperson Hossein Kermanpour said on X.

There were also no reports on July 25 of attacks from Iran on its Gulf neighbours, like those which have been taking place daily in response to the US attacks.

Axios, citing two unidentified sources familiar with the matter, said President Donald Trump on July 24 directed the military not to conduct new strikes against Iran.

The Pentagon and the White House did not return messages seeking comment on the pause in air strikes or on the Axios report.

On July 24, Trump said the ‌US and Iran were in talks to ​negotiate an end ​to their conflict, but ⁠repeated that Tehran ​was not yet ready ​for a deal.

Despite the lull in the Gulf, fighting between Iran’s Houthi allies and Saudi Arabia was a sign that the war, which has already disrupted energy supplies through the Strait of Hormuz, could be spreading to a second major shipping route, and reigniting Yemen’s own civil war.

War threatens to spread to Yemen

Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Saree said the group had successfully struck sites belonging to Saudi state oil giant Aramco in Jizan and Yanbu.

Video shared on social media and verified by Reuters showed a large column of smoke rising from the direction of the Aramco refinery in Jizan.

Two Asia-based trading sources said that they had been informed of potential damage to fuel and oil storage sites at Jizan.

Aramco did not respond to requests for comment.

A screen grab from footage taken on July 25 and verified by AFP shows clouds of smoke rising after strikes on the Saudi Aramco refinery in Jizan. PHOTO: AFP

In Yanbu, two ballistic missiles aimed at oil installations were intercepted by a US-made Patriot battery operated in Saudi Arabia by the Greek military under an agreement with Riyadh, Greek security sources said.

Yanbu is Saudi Arabia’s main Red Sea oil port, where millions of barrels a day are loaded, and has become the main route out for Saudi oil skirting the Strait of Hormuz, which has been blockaded by Iran. Jizan, on the Red Sea close to the Yemeni border, is the site of a refinery with a capacity of 400,000 barrels per day.

In Yemen, the air force of the Saudi-backed, internationally recognised government, which has opposed the Houthis for more than a decade, struck Houthi missile and drone launch sites and arms depots in the Marib and al-Jawf provinces, Yemeni officials said.

Earlier, the Saudi-led military alliance said it had bombed Houthi military positions on July 24 in the Red Sea port of Hodeidah.

The Yemeni officials said both sides in Yemen’s civil war were mobilising forces along the front.

Saudi-led coalition strikes Hodeidah

Saudi Arabia has led an Arab coalition battling against the Houthis for more than a decade since the Iran-aligned fighters captured Yemen’s capital, Sanaa.

The Yemeni civil war, during which hundreds of thousands of people died from fighting and famine, has been paused under a ceasefire since 2022. But that truce broke down this month, with the Houthis effectively joining the wider war their Iranian allies have waged since being attacked by the US and Israel.

The Houthis have declared a naval blockade of Saudi Arabia over the past week, and Houthi leader Abdul Malik al-Houthi said all Saudi oil facilities could be targets.

Global oil prices soared this week, with Brent crude spiking above US$100 a barrel for the first time since May.

Trump on July 24 vowed “major military punishment” for Tehran and the Houthis after the Houthis struck two Saudi tankers in the Red Sea. An interim truce meant to end the war effectively collapsed two weeks ago, with US forces striking targets in southern Iran in response to Iranian disruption of shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.

Trump has threatened in recent days to widen the range of targets to include Iran’s energy plants and bridges, send ground forces to seize its oil hub of Kharg Island, and bomb a deep-underground nuclear-linked site known as Pickaxe Mountain.

On July 24, however, Trump said he had not yet made a decision on major new strikes. REUTERS