{"id":218366,"date":"2026-07-26T22:18:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-26T22:18:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/new-front-in-us-iran-war-escalates-as-houthis-fire-at-saudi-oil-facilities-al-jazeera\/"},"modified":"2026-07-26T22:18:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-26T22:18:08","slug":"new-front-in-us-iran-war-escalates-as-houthis-fire-at-saudi-oil-facilities-al-jazeera","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/new-front-in-us-iran-war-escalates-as-houthis-fire-at-saudi-oil-facilities-al-jazeera\/","title":{"rendered":"New front in US-Iran war escalates as Houthis fire at Saudi oil facilities – Al Jazeera"},"content":{"rendered":"

Conflict also spreads to Caspian Sea as Tehran accuses Ukraine of a deadly attack on an Iranian vessel.<\/em>
Save
Share
Tehran-backed Houthi forces in Yemen have fired missiles and drones at two of Saudi Arabia\u2019s most strategically important oil facilities on the Red Sea, in a major escalation of the latest simmering regional conflict to be reignited by the war launched by the United States and Israel against Iran.
But the skies over the country at the epicentre of the widening war were quiet for a second successive night, with no new US attacks on Iran reported by Sunday morning.
Iran had been pounded by 13 consecutive waves of overnight US air strikes since July 11, after the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) attacked tankers trying to transit the Strait of Hormuz. As hostilities escalated, both sides declared that an interim peace agreement signed in June was dead, and a second phase of talks to finalise a comprehensive peace deal appeared doomed.
But there have been no US air strikes since Friday, and tentative signs are emerging that Washington and Tehran are still talking via mediators and might return to more meaningful discussions.
Even if another fragile truce is agreed, however, the cascade of consequences unleashed by the war is still stoking conflict and confrontation elsewhere.
Iran\u2019s attacks on shipping in the Strait of Hormuz have put a stranglehold on exports of oil and raw materials for fertiliser, sending energy prices soaring and raising the risk of a food security crisis in some of the world\u2019s most vulnerable countries.
In March, in response to attacks on Iran, the Tehran-backed Hezbollah movement in Lebanon resumed missile attacks on Israel, which then launched a devastating invasion of southern Lebanon that has displaced 1.2 million people.
Now, another smouldering regional conflict has erupted again, between US-allied Saudi Arabia and the Houthi movement which controls most of northern and western Yemen, including the capital, Sanaa. Saudi Arabia and its regional allies joined a brutal civil war against the Houthis in 2015, until a truce was agreed in 2022.<\/p>\n

The truce collapsed this month after an attack on Sanaa airport to stop an Iranian plane landing provoked the Houthis to fire ballistic missiles at Saudi Arabia. Last Monday, the Houthis declared a naval blockade of Saudi Arabia, and late on Friday the Saudis launched air strikes<\/a> on the Houthi-held city of Hodeidah.
In retaliation, Houthi forces launched Sunday\u2019s attacks on facilities belonging to Saudi state oil giant Aramco in the coastal cities of Jizan and Yanbu, Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree said.
There has been no comment from Saudi Arabia on the extent of any damage to Aramco\u2019s refinery in Jizan, but a large column of smoke was seen rising after the attack.
In Yanbu, Saudi Arabia\u2019s principal west coast export gateway, two ballistic missiles aimed at oil installations were intercepted by a Patriot battery operated in Saudi Arabia by the Greek military under an agreement \u200cwith Riyadh.
The escalating conflict has raised fears that the Houthis could block the Bab al-Mandeb Strait, which connects the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden. If both the Bab al-Mandeb and Hormuz straits were blocked, the resulting supply chain crisis would cause major economic damage across the world.<\/p>\n

Besides spreading to the Red Sea, the US-Iran war has become entangled with the deadliest active conflict in the world \u2013 Russia\u2019s attempted conquest of Ukraine.
A long-range strike on an Iranian vessel in the Caspian Sea<\/a> on Saturday caused an explosion that killed one sailor and wounded another, according to Iran\u2019s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which blamed the attack on Ukraine and summoned Kyiv\u2019s charge d\u2019affaires in Tehran to convey its condemnation of the \u201chostile and criminal\u201d act.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a post on X that Kyiv had achieved \u201cvery strong results\u201d with long-range strikes in the Caspian Sea, hitting \u201cvessels used in military cargo shipments involving Iran, as well as a warship\u201d.
Zelenskyy claimed in further comments on X on Saturday that since the start of July, Kyiv had detected \u201cactive Russian satellite \u2060surveillance of the Gulf states and US military facilities located there\u201d. He said the satellite images were passed to Tehran to help the IRGC identify targets for ballistic missile and drone attacks.
US President Donald Trump has not given a reason for the sudden cessation in air strikes on Iran, but a senior administration official told the Reuters news agency that Trump \u201chas always been clear that his preference is diplomacy, but he has shown Iran what will happen if they fail to come to the table in a serious way\u201d.
Trump said on Friday that there was still some communication with Iran.
\u201cThey are talking to us right now; they\u2019d love to make a deal,\u201d he said. \u201cI don\u2019t think they\u2019re ready to \u2026 but I\u2019m willing to listen.\u201d
Al Jazeera\u2019s Resul Serdar, reporting from Tehran, said Iranian officials had confirmed the two sides were exchanging messages.
\u201cThere have been proposals conveyed by the mediators, and Tehran is still reviewing them,\u201d Serdar said, adding there was\u00a0\u201cnot much progress yet\u201d due to \u201cfundamental differences\u201d in their positions and deep mistrust.<\/p>\n

Follow Al Jazeera English:<\/p>\n

source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Conflict also spreads to Caspian Sea as Tehran accuses Ukraine of a deadly attack on an Iranian vessel.SaveShareTehran-backed Houthi forces in Yemen have fired missiles and drones at two of Saudi Arabia\u2019s most strategically important oil facilities on the Red Sea, in a major escalation of the latest simmering regional conflict to be reignited by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":218367,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-218366","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-us","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218366","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=218366"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218366\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/218367"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=218366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=218366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=218366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}