Houthis and Saudi Arabia exchange fire as US-Iran war intensifies
The Kuwaiti Ministry of Foreign Affairs has expressed its “condemnation and strong denunciation” of the Houthi attacks against ships in the Red Sea.
- Saudi Arabia launches strikes on Yemen’s Houthi-held city of Hodeidah in the latest escalation during the regional war between the United States and Iran.
- President Donald Trump says dialogue between Washington and Tehran continues and a threatened “massive” attack may be unnecessary, although the US remains “locked and loaded”.
- Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi says Tehran does not fear threats or succumb to pressure.
- Iranian army spokesman Mohammad Akraminia has claimed that “almost all” US military infrastructure in Iraq’s Erbil has been destroyed during recent attacks by the IRGC, he told Iranian state television, as reported by Anadolu Agency.
- The Houthis have condemned those attacks and claimed air defences “intercepted enemy aircraft”.
- The IRGC naval forces stopped four vessels in the Strait of Hormuz over the past 24 hours after firing warning shots, Iranian state television has reported.
A public rift has emerged between Iran’s government and state television over how to portray the state of war and negotiations with the United States, as mediators try to nudge both countries towards diplomacy.
Former Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei publicly said there would be no negotiations with Washington – but privately had given his approval.
“We went to the dear leader, explained the situation, and asked him what to do since he had said the ‘no war, no peace’ conditions are bad for the country,” the president said. “He ordered us to go negotiate. We started the talks based on his order.”
‘Military action alone’ won’t change Iran’s perspective
Iran has “no perfect choices or even good ones”, according to Michael Mulroy, former US deputy assistant secretary of defence for the Middle East and a CIA paramilitary operations officer.
However, if Iran can sell energy, then the US is “not going to be able to isolate them to the point where they change their perspective on a new agreement that’s more conducive to the United States”, he told Al Jazeera.
“So I think we need to build an international coalition to identify how we’re doing this: sanctions, secondary sanctions, freezing assets, the IRGC’s global infrastructure – all these things need to happen”, he said, adding “they probably won’t happen fast enough for the White House’s perspective, but they do need to happen because it’s clear that just military action alone is not changing that perspective”.
“From the US perspective, it needs several things to happen for this not to be considered a strategic failure; they need the Strait of Hormuz to be open, completely open and they need a new nuclear agreement that guarantees Iran doesn’t get a nuclear weapon, and we’re pretty far from that.”
- Iran summons Ukraine’s diplomats after Kyiv bombs an Iranian ship in the Caspian Sea, killing at least one sailor and wounding another.
- Ukraine says it was targeting Russian vessels carrying Iran-linked military cargo, and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says Russia is assisting Iran in its military campaign in the Middle East.
- Yemen’s Houthis launch missile and drone attacks on Saudi Aramco oil facilities in Jizan and Yanbu on the Red Sea coast, in retaliation for Saudi-led coalition strikes on Hodeidah port and Kamaran Island.
- Trump has ordered the US military to set aside plans to attack Iran, according to US media, amid concerns the conflict could “dangerously drain” air defence munitions stocks.
- Kuwait’s ambassador to the US had denied a Wall Street Journal report that claimed the Gulf state had sent fighter jets to attack Iran.