U.S. forgoes strikes on Iran, but conflict escalates in the Red Sea

The Iran war broadened over the weekend despite a pause in U.S. strikes, as Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis attacked Saudi oil installations along the Red Sea coast and Iran ‌accused Ukraine of targeting one of its vessels in the Caspian Sea.

The U.S. military said on Saturday its naval blockade against Iran “remains in full effect” but did not explain why it halted a streak of 13 nights of escalating strikes.

There were also no weekend reports of attacks by Iran on neighbors, similar to its daily rejoinders to the U.S. attacks.

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz told NBC News’ Meet the Press that a pause in strikes was due to ongoing talks between the two countries.

“What the president is doing right now, as we’ve seen all along, is giving some talks, some space,” he said. “Talks are ongoing.”

Waltz added that, while talks were ongoing at the highest levels of the Iranian and U.S. governments, there was “internal fighting” on the Iranian side.

“Some are seeking the guidance of the supreme leader,” he said. “Others want to move into a different direction, and that makes it hugely challenging.”

Iran will halt its own attacks as long as the United ⁠States maintains its pause on strikes, but Tehran remains sceptical of U.S. ⁠intentions, a senior Iranian source told Reuters on Sunday.

“Iran’s ⁠position remains ‘attack for attack’: if ⁠the attacks stop, ‌Iran will also halt its operations. That message ‌has already been conveyed ‌to the United States,” the source told Reuters, ⁠a day after Washington halted attacks following 13 successive nights of air strikes.

“There is more scepticism than optimism about ‌the halt in attacks. The prevailing view ‌is that ⁠the pause is ⁠tactical rather than genuine,” the ‌source added.

Trump has decided, for now, to back away from plans to ramp up attacks on Iran, ⁠the New York Times said on Saturday, citing two people briefed on the discussion.

The president and his advisers, the newspaper said, have concerns about expanding the conflict, depleting defense stockpiles, alienating Middle East Gulf allies and affecting energy supplies and the global economy.

Vice President JD Vance and Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, both raised concerns about the U.S. munitions stockpile with Trump during a White House meeting on Friday, a U.S. official told CNN.

Operations are “on a hold,” a Department of Defense source told the broadcaster on Saturday.

Despite the Gulf lull, Saturday’s fighting between Iran’s Houthi allies and Saudi Arabia showed 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.

The ministry summoned Ukraine’s chargé d’affaires in Tehran to protest over an attack it described as “hostile and criminal”, state news agency IRNA said.

The Iranian denunciation coincided with comments by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy that Kyiv had ‌noted Russia ⁠was passing on to Iran its satellite observations in the Middle East, to enable it to direct strikes in the region.

Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Saree said the group struck sites belonging to Saudi state oil company Aramco in the cities of Jizan and Yanbu on Saturday.

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.

In Yemen, officials said the air force of the Saudi-backed, internationally recognized 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 mobilizing forces along the front.

Saudi Arabia has led an Arab coalition battling the Houthis since the Iran-aligned fighters captured Yemen’s capital, Sanaa.

The civil war, in which famine and fighting killed hundreds of thousands, has been paused by a ceasefire since ⁠2022.

But that truce broke down this month, with the Houthis effectively joining the wider war their Iranian allies have waged since being attacked by the United States 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.

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