Saudi Arabia, Houthis trade fresh strikes as spreading Middle East war threatens oil supplies

[DUBAI/CAIRO] Saudi Arabia and Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis exchanged fresh strikes across their border on Thursday (Sep 17) and Yemenis took to boats in the Red Sea to escape fighting, as the spreading Middle East war created new threats to global oil supplies.

Houthi-controlled television reported Saudi airstrikes in Hajjah province close to the Saudi border near the Red Sea coast, and the vicinity of Taiz further inland to the south.

Saudi Arabia’s civil defence said a Yemeni living in Saudi Arabia had been killed by debris from a drone intercepted over the western city of Taif, the first death Riyadh has announced in repeated Houthi attacks since fighting escalated last week. It has previously said more than 80 people were wounded.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Navy said a Togo-flagged oil tanker caught fire after being hit while attempting what it called an ‘illegal passage’ through the Strait of Hormuz, Iranian state media reported. The tanker came to a halt after the fire, the Guards Navy said.

The spread of the war to Yemen and Saudi Arabia has raised new concerns about oil supplies by jeopardising the main alternative Red Sea route for Gulf exports while traffic through the Strait of Hormuz remains constrained.

US President Donald Trump has rebuffed pleas from the Saudis for military support to fight the Houthis, who agreed a ceasefire with the US in 2025 after Washington bombed the group for two months.

The president faces the prospect of political losses for his Republican Party in November’s midterm elections, partly because of higher energy prices since the US and Israel attacked Iran in February.

Trump said on Thursday he is approaching a critical juncture over whether to restart massive attacks on Iran.

“I have a big decision coming up. Do I want to go in and annihilate them or do I not? It’s a big decision. Anything could happen with me,” Trump said in an interview with Axios.

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Trump has in the past threatened major new attacks that have not materialised.

Global crude prices eased slightly on Thursday but remain well above US$100 a barrel after reaching their highest levels since May. The average US retail diesel price hit a record high on Thursday, just shy of US$6.40 a gallon.

The US and Iran have held no negotiations to end the war since an interim agreement reached in June collapsed within weeks. But the war will come up for discussion at the United Nations General Assembly later in September, and an Iranian delegation will be able to attend, according to the US State Department.

‘The sea was frightening’

The fighting has driven Yemeni civilians to flee across the Bab el-Mandeb – Arabic for “Gate of Tears” – the narrow strait at the mouth of the Red Sea.

In Djibouti on the African shore of the Red Sea, Wahida Omer, 50, reached land after crossing on a small boat from Yemen when her village of Dhubab came under attack as the Houthis swept into the area. Her husband had been left behind and she had no idea if he was alive, dead or captured by the Houthis.

“The sea was frightening, difficult,” she said in an interview filmed by the International Organization for Migration (IOM). Those on the boat were “crying the whole way, and we arrived still crying” with nothing to eat.

The IOM says more than 100,000 Yemenis have been displaced by the latest fighting, mostly within Yemen.

The Houthis, who have seized Yemen’s entire Red Sea coast since last week in a lightning advance, say the Saudi Air Force has conducted hundreds of airstrikes in recent days. On Wednesday, the Houthis said they had shot down a Saudi F-15 fighter jet.

“We want the Saudis to cease their blockade and occupation of our country, and to stop their aggression against us. This is our demand!” Houthi leader Abdul Malik al-Houthi said in a televised speech, seated with a traditional dagger in his belt. Slogans on the wall behind him read: “Death to America, death to Israel, a curse upon the Jews, victory for Islam.”

The US Navy is trying to guide ships through the Strait of Hormuz, the outlet to the Gulf along Iran’s coast, where a fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas passed before the war, and is also imposing a blockade of Iranian ports.

Iran says the strait is closed and will remain shut until Washington lifts the blockade. It is seeking an agreement with neighbouring Gulf states that would let it collect fees from ships passing through the strait. REUTERS