War returns to Iran with Israel, US strikes

Shortly after the all-clear, the Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen says it had intercepted a ballistic missile launched by the Yemeni Houthi group towards the Eastern region, Reuters reports.

The Houthis have been firing ballistic missiles and drones at Saudi airports, ports and oil installations, turning US ally Saudi Arabia into a pressure point in a war that began with the US and Israel attacking Iran in February.

We earlier reported that the US Centcom said an American military aircraft fired on ​and disabled a commercial vessel that ‌tried to break the US blockade of Iran.

Here’s are further details from the Centcom statement.

It said the incident took place on Nov 7 in the Gulf of Oman.

“This action followed the vessel’s civilian crew ignoring repeated warnings and making several attempts to breach the naval blockade against Iran. After Centcom forces ordered the crew to leave designated areas, a US military aircraft disabled the M/V Huda, a ship flying the flag of Saint Kitts, by firing precision munitions at its stern.

“The cargo vessel had stopped at a port in Iran and was preparing to leave the region’s waters.”

Mohsen Razzaqi, commander of Iran’s Northern Fleet and Fourth Naval Zone, says coordination and cooperation among the branches of the country’s armed forces are at “their highest level”, Al Jazeera reports.

He says Iran’s naval forces are defending its maritime borders around the clock, and that the consequences of any attack must be high enough to deter another assault.

“The cost of any aggression against Iran must be raised to such an extent that the enemy will no longer dare attack the country again,” Razzaqi has said, according to the IRNA news agency.

His remarks are the latest in a series of statements from Iranian officials and commanders signalling readiness to respond to any renewed US attack.

Saudi Arabia’s civil defence says that the danger has passed, shortly after issuing alerts warning of potential threats in several parts of the kingdom, including Dhahran, home to oil giant Saudi Aramco’s headquarters, reports Reuters.

The danger had also passed in Dammam, Abqaiq and Al-Ahsa governorate, the civil defence said.

Anees Alasbahi, a spokesperson for the Houthi Ministry of Health, claims the death toll from airstrikes by Saudi-led coalition on the village of Al Shariyah has now risen to 33, Al Jazeera reports.

In a post on X, he says at least 39 others were also wounded.

The village is located in the Bani Hashish district, east of Sanaa.

Alasbahi says several airstrikes on Saturday had targeted homes, roads, paramedics and civil defence teams.

There has been no comment from the Saudi-led coalition.

Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud and his Qatari counterpart, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani, have discussed the latest regional developments in a phone call, Al Jazeera reports.

In a post on X, the Saudi Foreign Ministry says the ministers also talked about the “ongoing efforts to de-escalate tensions and enhance security and stability”.

It was the second reported phone call between the two ministers in the past week.

An American military aircraft fired on ​and disabled a commercial vessel that ‌tried to break the US blockade of Iran on Saturday, US Central Command has claimed, according to Reuters.

The St. ​Kitts-flagged cargo vessel tried to depart ​regional waters after visiting an Iranian ⁠port, and a US plane fired ​precision munitions at its stern after US ​forces directed the crew to abandon targeted spaces, Central Command said.

Iranian state broadcaster IRIB has reported citing the Iranian Navy that two “offending tankers” that passed through the “unsafe part” of the Strait of Hormuz with their navigation systems turned off had suffered severe damage and stopped after hitting sea mines.

The state media, which reported the incident early on Sunday, said it took place hours ago.

US Vice President Vance has spent the past two weeks personally involved in indirect talks with Iran aimed at reaching a new ceasefire and resuming nuclear negotiations, Axios reports, citing two “sources with knowledge of the matter”.

Axios correspondent Barak Ravid claimed Vance has been “speaking almost daily” to key figures from mediating countries Pakistan, Qatar and others.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has told US President Donald Trump by phone that Ankara will continue its peace efforts and that tensions between Iran and the United States should be resolved through diplomacy, Reuters reports citing Erdogan’s office.

Erdogan told Trump that Turkiye would also continue to contribute to efforts to end the war in Ukraine and that contacts with both Kyiv and Moscow should be intensified, according to a readout from his office.

Iranian naval commander Rear Admiral Mohsen Razzaqi says coordination and cooperation among the country’s armed forces is currently at its highest level, highlighting the “strong synergy” among branches, state news agency IRNA reports.

He also highlights Iran’s missile, drone, and naval capabilities, its geographical location, and the resilience of the people as key parts of national defence.

Houthi media has claimed that Saudi strikes killed 27 people, most of them women and children, in Yemen’s Sanaa province, as deaths mount in the country’s revived civil war, AFP reports.

The United Nations says more than 1,600 people have been killed and more than 300,000 displaced since fighting resumed in the impoverished country.

The death toll from the strikes on Al-Shariya village has risen to 27, most of them women and children, with 36 people wounded, the Houthis’ health ministry said in a statement to their Saba news agency.

Saba said earlier on Saturday that operations to recover victims from the rubble were ongoing and that “aircraft targeted paramedics with two strikes”.

Syria has no plans to send military forces to Yemen, a Syrian diplomatic source told state news agency SANA, dismissing reports of a possible deployment as baseless, according to Reuters.

The source was outlining the scope of military cooperation with Saudi Arabia, which currently focuses on training Syrian forces, building their capabilities and exchanging military expertise.

Coordination visits by Saudi officials to Syria are set to begin next month, the person added.

Yemen’s Houthi rebels claimed they had launched multiple missile and drone attacks against Saudi troops and infrastructure both in the Gulf kingdom and Yemen, AFP reports.

The group, which is fighting a Saudi-led coalition backing Yemen’s internationally recognised government, launched six operations that targeted Aramco oil facilities in Khurais as well as Riyadh airport, Saudi troops in Najran and military facilities on both sides of the border, Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree posted on X.

Iranian national security chief Mohsen Rezaei has warned the US: “Start a war, and you’ll face a devastating response.”

In a post on X, the secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council said: “You lost the war and the election. Vance has conceded, Rubio is heading for the exit, Hegseth is about to be fired, and the Centcom commander is now a podcaster!

“So٫Who exactly in Washington do we need to get this message across to?” he asked.

Iraq’s Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein, in an interview with Al Jazeera, said the current circumstances suggest the potential for a renewed war in the region.

Iraq has informed Iran that it welcomes friendship and an alliance, but rejects any interference in its internal affairs, Hussein told Al Jazeera.

He further said Washington has formally requested the closure of all border crossings with Iran, with the exception of two.

Iraqi oil exports through the Strait of Hormuz have resumed following understandings reached with both Washington and Tehran, the minister added.

Yemeni government forces say they have repelled military movements by the Houthis in the past few hours within the Seventh Military Region on the northern front of Yemen’s Marib Governorate, Al Jazeera reports.

In a statement, the forces said they were able to destroy combat equipment and “neutralise” groups that they said the Houthis had deployed to the front lines.

Iraq’s foreign minister has said his country has information indicating that external parties are using Iraqi territory to launch attacks against neighbouring countries.

Fuad Hussein told Al Jazeera that an investigation is underway into attacks targeting Gulf states that were launched from Iraqi territory.

Former US counter-terrorism chief Joe Kent has said that the country needs to end the war and fire the officials who enabled it.

In an article published in Responsible Statecraft, he writes, “It’s time to end the war in Iran. This is irrefutable, as Vice President Vance has admitted. Over 70 per cent of voters blamed the Iran war and our off-balanced relationship with Israel for the out-of-control inflation that affects their daily lives and have zero tolerance for more wars of choice.

“With this clear message from the American people, Trump must immediately end the war – today.”

Kent says that the US can end the war by withdrawing its assets from the region and ending the naval blockade on Iranian ports. He notes that most American bases in the Middle East are a “strategic liability” and that lifting the blockade would put the “diplomatic ball back in Iran’s court”.

After a months-long naval blockade on Iran, the US military is setting up a task force to bolster Washington’s efforts to restrict Tehran’s movement of advanced weapons systems and other sanctioned material across its land borders and the Caspian Sea, Reuters reports.

Admiral Brad Cooper, the commander of Centcom, has directed the formation of Task Force Iron Gate, as it will be called. It will be based in Tampa, Florida, with internal staff of approximately 20 civilian and military personnel”, Centcom says.

It will coordinate with other US government agencies “on preventing the movement of advanced weapons systems, dual-use technologies, sanctioned materials, and illegal revenue streams across Iran’s land borders and the Caspian Sea”.

“Strengthening Centcom’s collaboration with US interagency partners will further constrain Iran’s ability to finance terrorism, rebuild weapons factories, and replenish their military,” Admiral Cooper insisted in the statement.

Centcom claimed that its naval blockade has prevented Iran from exporting more than $25 billion in crude oil.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi says he has had phone calls with 12 foreign ministers over the past 48 hours to discuss regional developments, Anadolu reports.

In a post on the US social media platform Instagram, Araghchi says he outlined Tehran’s “fundamental positions” and discussed the need to “respect national sovereignty, end aggression and threats, avoid harmful foreign interference” and prevent “the spread of insecurity”.

Iran’s top diplomat adds that he also called for the establishment of “regional security arrangements without the involvement of powers from outside the region”.

Araghchi says he spoke with his counterparts from Pakistan, Turkiye, Qatar, Oman, Egypt, Jordan, the Greek Cypriot administration of Southern Cyprus, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Tunisia, and Iraq.

Thousands of Syrian troops are set to deploy to Saudi Arabia and Yemen, with some already on the ground, multiple Yemeni officials tell AFP, as Riyadh rallies international help to repel the Houthis and bolster the government in Aden.

Hundreds have already been deployed to both sides of the border, according to three separate Yemeni military sources and a defence official.

A source from Yemen’s presidency and another from its defence ministry adds that thousands more are set to be deployed to help with the fight against the Houthis.

Iranian state broadcaster Press TV says its Instagram account has been disabled “without prior warning or any explanation of which post or posts violated its rules”.

Following a tanker hitting a mine in the Strait of Hormuz, Iran’s navy has issued a warning to other vessels, saying “This is the fate of all ships and vessels that ignore warnings and travel in prohibited areas,” Al Jazeera reports citing broadcaster IRIB.