Iran war spreads to Red and Caspian seas, Gulf quiet as US halts strikes
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A ship off the Yemeni port of Aden on July 23, where traffic remained steady after the Iran-aligned Houthis said their forces had carried out strikes on Saudi oil tankers.
PHOTO: REUTERS
- Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthis attacked Saudi oil sites along the Red Sea, escalating the Iran war and threatening a key shipping route beyond the Strait of Hormuz.
- US halted 13 nights of strikes on Iran, with President Trump reportedly favouring diplomacy amid concerns over conflict expansion, defence depletion, and global economic impact.
- Iran accused Ukraine of attacking an Iranian vessel in the Caspian Sea, resulting in a death, while Saudi-led forces continued strikes against Houthis in Yemen's civil war.
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WASHINGTON/ATHENS – The Iran war broadened over the weekend despite a pause in US strikes, as Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis attacked Saudi oil installations along the Red Sea coast and Iran accused Ukraine of targeting an Iranian vessel in the Caspian Sea.
The US military said on July 25 that its naval blockade against Iran “remains in full effect” but did not explain why it halted a streak of 13 nights of escalating strikes.
Asked about the pause, a senior official in President Donald Trump’s administration said Trump “has always been clear that his preference is diplomacy, but he has shown Iran what will happen if (it fails) to come to the table in a serious way”.
Trump has decided, for now, to back away from earlier plans to ramp up attacks on Iran, The New York Times reported on the night of July 25, citing two people briefed on the discussion.
The President and his advisers, according to the Times, have concerns about expanding the conflict, depleting defence stockpiles, alienating Persian Gulf allies, and affecting energy supplies and the global economy.
Vice-President J.D. Vance and General Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, both raised concerns about the US munitions stockpile with Trump during a White House meeting on July 24, a US official told CNN.
Operations are “on a hold”, a Department of Defence source told the broadcaster on July 25.
Despite the lull in the Gulf, fighting between Iran’s Houthi allies and Saudi Arabia on July 25 indicated that the war, which has already disrupted energy supplies through the Strait of Hormuz, could affect a second major shipping route and reignite Yemen’s civil war.
Separately, Iran’s Foreign Ministry accused Ukraine of attacking an Iranian commercial vessel in the Caspian Sea, saying one sailor was killed and another injured.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry summoned Ukraine’s charge d’affaires in Tehran to convey its protest over what it described as a “hostile and criminal” attack, Iran’s state news agency IRNA reported.
The Iranian denunciation coincided with comments by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that Kyiv had noted that Russia was passing on its satellite observations in the Middle East to Iran to enable it to direct strikes in the region.
War threatens to spread to Yemen
Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree said the group struck sites belonging to Saudi state oil company Aramco in the cities of Jizan and Yanbu on July 25.
A large column of smoke rose from the direction of the Aramco refinery in Jizan, near the Yemeni border, video on social media verified by Reuters showed. The refinery can process up to 400,000 barrels of crude oil daily.
Two Asia-based trading sources said they had been informed of potential damage to fuel and oil storage sites at Jizan. Aramco did not respond to requests for comment.
In Yanbu, two missiles aimed at oil installations were intercepted. Yanbu, Saudi Arabia’s main Red Sea oil port, has become a key route for Saudi oil skirting the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran has blockaded.
Saudi-led coalition strikes Hodeidah
In Yemen, officials said the air force of the Saudi-backed, internationally recognised government, which has opposed the Houthis for more than a decade, struck Houthi sites in the Marib and al-Jawf provinces.
The officials said both sides in Yemen’s civil war were mobilising forces along the front.
Saudi Arabia has led an Arab coalition battling the Houthis for more than a decade since the Iran-aligned fighters captured Yemen’s capital, Sanaa.
The 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 in July, with the Houthis effectively joining the wider war that their Iranian allies have waged since being attacked by the US and Israel five months ago.
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. REUTERS
