The Red Sea crisis deepened on Monday as Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis launched fresh missile and drone strikes on Saudi Arabia while digging into positions along Yemen’s western coast, according to Yemeni officials, placing renewed strain on the kingdom’s oil export routes.
The Houthis said they fired dozens of missiles and drones at a military airbase in Khamis Mushait in southern Saudi Arabia, targeting aircraft hangars, radar systems, runways and ammunition depots in retaliation for Saudi airstrikes in Yemen. Saudi authorities issued emergency alerts in that city and three other southern cities. The Saudi-led coalition in Yemen said 13 civilians were wounded in the attacks.
The Houthi advances in recent days, including the taking of Perim Island at the mouth of the Red Sea, have put further pressure on Saudi oil exports after an aerial attack on Thursday knocked Saudi Arabia’s east-west pipeline offline. Riyadh blamed the pipeline attack on Iranian-backed militias in Iraq.
Saudi Arabia built the 1,200-kilometre (745-mile) pipeline across its territory from the Gulf to the Red Sea in the 1980s to bypass the Strait of Hormuz when it came under threat from the Iran-Iraq war at that time. Traders said a prolonged shutdown of the Saudi pipeline could cut off as much as 4% of global oil supply while the strait is largely blockaded. Riyadh has not said when operations might resume.
Responding to the Houthi offensive, the Saudi and Yemeni air forces have stepped up aerial bombardment of Houthi targets, including around the historic Red Sea port of Mocha, but the Houthis have maintained effective control over almost the entire western coast of the country along the Red Sea, officials with Yemen’s internationally recognised government said.
“The Houthis are being put under heavy pressure. They in turn are putting more and more pressure on the Saudis, increasing their campaign of missile and drone attacks,” one of the Yemeni officials said.
Crude oil prices rose more than 4% on Monday before settling about 1% higher.
The renewed Yemen conflict poses another challenge for US President Donald Trump. Three sources have told Reuters that Washington has so far resisted Saudi requests for direct military intervention beyond intelligence support. Trump said over the weekend he had spoken with the Saudi crown prince and that the Houthis had also contacted Washington urging it to stay out of the conflict.
Saudi state media reported that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman met US regional commander Admiral Brad Cooper in Jeddah on Monday.
Saudi Arabia has led a coalition battling the Houthis since 2015, but the conflict had largely quietened under a ceasefire in recent years. Fighting reignited this month, with the Houthis pushing back forces aligned with the internationally recognised government.
Hopes for diplomacy faded further as Oman announced that a meeting scheduled for Monday with Iran and Gulf states to discuss negotiations aimed at reopening the Strait of Hormuz had been postponed. Before the war, the strait carried 20% of the world’s oil exports.
Iran said the postponement was at the request of Saudi Arabia. Trump on Monday repeated his frequent claim that Iran was eager to make a deal quickly, but Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, called the president’s message a distraction, saying on X, “No talks until Iran’s conditions” are met.
With the Red Sea crisis showing no sign of easing, the region’s oil infrastructure remains exposed to further disruption, and the postponement of talks in Oman leaves the diplomatic track stalled.
Source: Geo News