Saudis shut down oil pipeline as Houthis tighten grip on Red Sea shipping

• A drone attack from Iraqi territory forced Saudi Arabia to shut down a key 1,200km oil pipeline, disrupting the flow of 4 million to 5 million barrels a day.
• Iran-aligned Houthi rebels seized the strategic Perim Island in the Red Sea, threatening vital shipping routes.
• Saudi Arabia sought US military support against the Houthis, but Washington declined direct action, offering intelligence aid instead.

RIYADH – A drone attack launched from Iraqi territory led Saudi Arabia to shut down a critical oil pipeline on Sept 11, heightening fears that widening clashes in the region could further disrupt energy supplies.

The global price of oil briefly jumped to about US$110 a barrel.

The 1,200km pipeline running across the Arabian Peninsula has helped Saudi Arabia bypass a shipping logjam in the Strait of Hormuz, where tanker traffic has slowed to a trickle due to the six-month-old war between the United States and Iran.

The Saudi energy ministry said it shut the pipeline as a precaution. The line has been moving 4 million to 5 million barrels per day in recent months, amounting to 4 to 5 per cent of global supply, according to ship tracking companies and analysts.

It was not immediately clear who was responsible for the strikes. US President Donald Trump, visiting Ireland to attend a golf tournament at one of his resorts, said Iran was probably to blame.

Both Baghdad and Riyadh said the drones came from Iraq, where Iranian-backed militias operate. Iraq, in turn, dismissed a military commander on Sept 12 in response to the attack.

Satellite images showed black smoke rising from an area of the pipeline south of Medina.

The attack resulted in some injuries and damage that was being assessed, the Saudi foreign ministry said without detailing the impact on exports.

The attack came as Iran-aligned Houthi rebels in Yemen tightened their grip around the Red Sea that, combined with the Strait of Hormuz disruptions, has put an energy squeeze on both sides of the Arabian Peninsula.

Oil prices shot up over the past week, and the retail price of diesel in the United States surged past a record US$6 a gallon for the first time.

Four Yemeni government sources said Houthis seized the strategic island of Perim on Sept 11 at the mouth of the Red Sea, in the Bab el-Mandeb strait.

Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, phoned Trump last week and asked for US military help fighting the Houthis, two sources told Reuters. He was told Washington would not intervene directly for now but would help with intelligence, the sources said.

Trump confirmed on Sept 12 that he had spoken to the crown prince, and said the Houthis had also phoned his administration and asked for Washington not to become directly involved in the conflict.

The dual attacks reported on Sept 11 – on the pipeline and Perim Island – could represent a dangerous escalation, as diplomatic efforts to end the war stall.

In a post on X on Sept 12, Ebrahim Azizi, head of the Iranian Parliament’s national security committee, said: “As long as the American side does not accept all of Iran’s conditions, dialogue and negotiation are of no use.”

On Sept 12, Trump said the war, which he launched six months ago, would probably end shortly after the US midterm elections in November, when oil prices would “come tumbling down”.

Iran wants its control of the Strait of Hormuz to be recognised, allowing it to collect fees from ships that use it, which Washington rejects.

The Iranian foreign ministry said on Sept 11 that Iran would meet with Gulf states in Oman on Sept 14 to discuss the strait. Oman has yet to publicly confirm such a meeting. ​

The dismissed Iraqi military commander led operations in Maysan province, according to a statement on Sept 12 by the Iraqi prime minister’s office.

Maysan, which borders Iran in south-eastern Iraq, has long been regarded as an area where Iran-backed Shi’ite militias operate and maintain influence.

Saudi Arabia has opted against retaliation so far following a request from the Iraqi prime minister, the Saudi foreign ministry said in a statement.

But the ministry added that Saudi Arabia reserves the right to “take all measures necessary” to protect its interests.

Iraq’s government condemned the attack.

Iraq ordered the closure of the Shalamcheh border crossing between Iraq and Iran as a precautionary measure, two security sources said. The crossing serves as one of the main routes for the import to Iraq of vegetables and other food supplies from Iran.

The two sources said a wide-scale operation was under way to find those responsible for the pipeline attack.

Counterattack planned

Saudi crude supply fell to the lowest levels in more than three decades, the International Energy Agency said on Sept 11, partly due to attacks on ships transiting Bab el-Mandeb by Houthi-linked groups.

Saudi-backed forces of the Yemeni government based in the south indicated that they would try to retake areas captured by the Houthis – mountain fighters who withstood years of devastating Saudi air strikes during Yemen’s civil war – in their lightning offensive this week along the Red Sea coastline.

Reuters reported on Sept 10 that the dramatic Houthi advance down Yemen’s Red Sea coast came with direct guidance from Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.

Iran told the Houthis last week to escalate their attacks on Saudi Arabia and promised more funding, weapons and senior officers to help them do so, two Iranian sources said.

Iran describes the Houthis as an ally but publicly denies giving them military direction, saying they are “not a proxy”.

The Houthi military spokesman, Yahya Saree, said maritime navigation remained safe for all shipping except Saudi vessels subject to a previously announced ban. ​REUTERS