• Houthis claim strikes on Aramco sites in Jizan, Yanbu
• Iran offers to facilitate dialogue between Saudi Arabia, Houthis
• Araghchi says ‘no military solution’ to Yemen conflict
• US military disables tanker attempting to evade blockade on Iranian ports
• Minister says Iran sold $18bn of oil during war, ceasefire
ATHENS: While the United States held back from launching air strikes on Iran itself for the first night in two weeks, fighting intensified on a new front as Yemen’s Houthi rebels on Saturday fired on Saudi oil installations in two ports on the Red Sea coast after the Saudi-led military alliance bombed Houthi military positions in Hodeidah.
There was no immediate explanation from Washington of why it had abruptly halted a streak of 13 nights of escalating strikes amid regional countries’ renewed push for de-escalation with an appeal to both sides to build on the commitments under Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding (MoU).
However, the strikes from Houthis on Saudi Arabia were a sign that the war that has disrupted energy supplies from the Gulf could be spreading to a second major shipping route, and reigniting Yemen’s own civil war.
A surface-to-air battery operated by Greek personnel in Saudi Arabia downed two ballistic missiles and later a drone launched from Yemen targeting Yanbu on Saturday morning, the Greek air force press office said.
Houthis had accused US ally Saudi Arabia of a “dangerous escalation” after Riyadh struck Houthi targets in Yemen on Friday.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on Saturday there was no military solution to the escalating conflict between Saudi Arabia and the Houthi rebels in Yemen.
“We believe that there is no military solution to the issue of Yemen, Bab al-Mandab, and other regional issues,” said Araghchi in an interview published on Saturday by the state-run Iran Daily newspaper, calling for “dialogue”.
He said the situation in Yemen “cannot be attributed to Iran” and that the incidents in the Bab al-Mandab Strait were “rooted in old disputes and issues between Yemen, Saudi Arabia and the countries of the region”.
Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei made similar remarks, expressing Tehran’s readiness to facilitate any talks between the two sides.
“Returning to the path of dialogue and the full implementation of the agreed roadmap is the only way to end the suffering of the Yemeni people and maintain security and stability in the region,” Baqaei said.
War threatens to spread to Yemen
Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Saree said on Saturday the group had successfully struck sites belonging to Saudi state oil giant Aramco in Jizan and Yanbu. Video shared on social media showed a large column of smoke rising from the direction of the Aramco refinery in Jizan.
Two Asia-based trading sources said that 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 ballistic missiles aimed at oil installations were intercepted by a US-made Patriot battery operated in Saudi Arabia by the Greek military under an agreement with Riyadh, Greek security sources said.
Yanbu is Saudi Arabia’s main Red Sea oil port, where millions of barrels a day are loaded, and has become the main route out for Saudi oil skirting the Strait of Hormuz, which has been blockaded by Iran.
Jizan, on the Red Sea close to the Yemeni border, is the site of a refinery with a capacity of 400,000 barrels per day.
In Yemen, the air force of the Saudi-backed, internationally recognised government, which has opposed the Houthis for more than a decade, struck Houthi missile and drone launch sites and arms depots in the Marib and al-Jawf provinces, Yemeni officials said.
Earlier, the Saudi-led military alliance said it had bombed Houthi military positions on Friday in the Red Sea port of Hodeidah.
The Yemeni officials said both sides in Yemen’s civil war were mobilising forces along the front.
Faiza, a 36-year-old mother of two and Hodeida resident, told AFP the strikes were like “the sound of loud thunder”, explaining she had heard three distinct explosions. “I didn’t want to believe that we had gone back to strikes,” she added.
Saudi Arabia has led an Arab coalition battling against the Houthis for more than a decade since the Iran-aligned fighters captured Yemen’s capital, Sanaa.
Meanwhile, the US military said it had fired on and disabled a tanker ship that was attempting to evade the American blockade on Iranian ports.
“We disabled the tanker after the crew attempted to run the blockade at least four times prior,” Navy Captain Tim Hawkins, spokesman for US Central Command, told AFP.
“The crew was repeatedly warned, didn’t comply, and US forces on scene disabled the ship after firing into its engine room,” he said. “The ship is no longer transiting to Iran.”
Trump has threatened in recent days to widen the range of targets to include Iran’s energy plants and bridges, send ground forces to seize its oil hub of Kharg Island, and bomb a deep-underground nuclear-linked site known as Pickaxe Mountain.
Iran sold $18bn oil
Meanwhile, Iranian Oil Minister Mohsen Paknejad said the country sold $11.5 billion worth of oil during the war and a further $6.5 billion during a ceasefire, when lower risks to tanker traffic helped increase exports and enabled the sale of part of around 100 million barrels of stored crude oil and gas condensate.
The sales generated more than 60 per cent of the oil revenue forecast in Iran’s annual budget, Paknejad said.
Published in Dawn, July 26th, 2026