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US President Donald Trump said on Thursday he would punish Iran for any attack by Yemen's Houthi rebels, who said this week they had blocked warships in Saudi Arabia.
Trump vowed “major military sanctions” against Iran and its Houthi allies in a Truth Social post.
The Houthis, he said, “are starting again, they fired at two Saudi Arabian ships last night.”
The Houthis – who control Yemen's Red Sea coast and a small area where it connects to the Arabian Sea – said this week they blocked Saudi Arabia, which has diverted millions of barrels of oil a day south, through a pipeline to the Red Sea, to bypass Iran's blockade of the Persian Gulf.
In their first such strike since announcing the move, the Houthis said on Thursday their forces carried out missile and explosive strikes on two Saudi oil tankers, which they identified as Encelia and Layla.
Saudi news agency SPA said the strike in Encelia caused a fire in the suburbs. Reuters could not immediately confirm the other attack, on Layla.
A coalition led by Saudi Arabia has been fighting the Houthis for years since 2015, after the militant group seized Yemen's capital and forced the popular government to evacuate. The war started one of the world's worst disasters, and both sides reached an agreement in 2022.
The Houthi attack on the ships was condemned as irresponsible by the European Union.
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Another difficulty in shipping
Houthi attacks on tankers could effectively close the Bab el-Mandeb Strait that controls access to the Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean, which is the most important waterway for energy markets behind the Strait of Hormuz at the mouth of the Gulf.
In the days since the Houthis announced their blockade, several tankers have already changed course to avoid Bab el-Mandeb, heading north instead through the Suez Canal, potentially using a longer and more expensive route to reach Asian customers by sailing through Africa.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the Houthis were “led into this” by Iran, expressing hope that the situation will subside soon, while at the recent meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in Manila.
But world prices rose on Thursday on the back of a recent development that reached their highest level since early June, when Brent crude oil, the international standard, rose above $100 US.
In the Strait of Hormuz, Iran aims to tighten control by requiring ships to sail close to its coast and eventually charging a toll for passage. It has fired at ships using another channel off its coast, which is being developed by Washington.
The exchange of flights continues
Two weeks after the successful collapse of an interim memorandum of understanding meant to end the war, the US military began another round of nightly airstrikes in Iran.
Iranian media reported that the US twice on Thursday struck a military target in Bushehr, near Iran's only active nuclear power plant.
State TV reported that two people were killed and 11 wounded in what the Khuzestan provincial official described as a US missile attack on the Shalamcheh border with Iraq, which remains open.
In response, Iran fired at neighboring Arab countries with US bases.
Iran said it had attacked US missile systems, weapons and fuel storage facilities in Jordan, and US military bases in Kuwait. It also hit water and power plants in Kuwait this week.
Jordan's military said it had intercepted six Iranian ballistic missiles and drones in the past 24 hours, intercepting all but one of the missiles, which landed in uninhabited territory.
Iran's military spokesman, Gen. Mohammad Akraminia, said that Iran will continue to retaliate as long as the US continues to attack infrastructure and coastal areas, reported Iran state TV.
Trump vowed on Wednesday to destroy an Iranian bridge or power plant every time Iran fires at a ship in the Strait of Hormuz.
Iran's joint military command also warned that it would target oil, gas, electricity and economic infrastructure and ban the export of “even a single drop of oil,” Iranian state media reported.
The battle resulted in the death of 18 American service members and the injury of over 450 soldiers. Trump attended a ceremony Wednesday at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware for four US service members killed in Iran's attacks on military bases in the past few days.
Earlier this week, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth testified that the war has cost the US more than $37 billion so far.
Four Republicans on Thursday joined all Democrats in voting to require federal authorization for war. The 214-208 vote in the House of Representatives is expected to be followed by the Senate, which is considering a similar resolution later Thursday.
The decisions are symbolic and not sent to the White House — Trump will veto any such bill — but they reflect the growing frustration of many lawmakers over the cost of the war, and what some see as a lack of transparency from the administration, just over three months from the midterm and congressional elections.
The US military carried out airstrikes on areas targeted by Houthi rebels in Yemen on Saturday, and the Houthi-run Ministry of Health reported that at least nine civilians had been killed. In an online post, US President Donald Trump said he ordered the strikes in response to Houthi attacks on international shipping in and around the Red Sea.
