Houthis hit Aramco and Mocha as Iran links Hormuz reopening to US terms

The Houthis said they struck an Aramco facility in Jazan and Yemen's Mocha port. The attacks coincided with Iran tying any Hormuz reopening and US talks to strict conditions.

In Short

• Saudi Energy Ministry reported a refinery fire, later extinguished without casualties
• Missiles and drones damaged Mocha port buildings, pier and stored food supplies
• Iran and Oman near a temporary Hormuz routing deal without tolls

Middle East tensions sharpened on Sunday as Yemen's Houthis said they had attacked an Aramco oil facility in south-western Saudi Arabia and also struck Yemen's Mocha port on the Red Sea. The attacks marked the latest escalation by the Iran-backed group and raised fresh concerns over the conflict's impact on vital shipping routes.

At the same time, Iran signalled that any reopening of the Strait of Hormuz and any resumption of negotiations with the United States would depend on conditions it has conveyed through intermediaries. The Pentagon, meanwhile, said it was pushing for faster weapons production, Iranian media released an undated video apparently showing Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said there would be no Israeli withdrawal from Gaza until Hamas disarms.

Yahya Saree, a military spokesperson for the Houthis, said the group targeted an Aramco refinery in Jazan with a drone. He said the attack was in response to Saudi drones breaching Yemen's airspace over Hajjah and Saada provinces.

Early on Sunday, Saudi Arabia's Energy Ministry reported a fire at a facility belonging to the Aramco refinery and said there were no casualties. It said the fire had been put out, but did not give a cause. The strike was the latest in a series of Houthi missile and drone attacks targeting Saudi Arabia and shipping in the Red Sea.

A Yemeni government official said the Houthis also attacked Mocha port, a key Red Sea facility. Fayed al-Noman, assistant undersecretary at the information ministry, said the Houthis fired missiles and drones at the port, causing severe damage to buildings and the pier, as well as to commercial goods and food supplies stored there.

Mocha is one of the main ports under Yemen's internationally recognised government and has been renovated in recent years to handle shipping avoiding Houthi-held ports in Hodeida. The Houthis later claimed that attack as well, saying they fired "a large number of ballistic missiles and drones" targeting military enforcement and warehouses in the area. The escalation threatens to reignite Yemen's civil war more than four years after a 2022 truce halted major fighting.

The Strait of Hormuz, a key route for global oil and natural gas supplies, was considered an international waterway before the war. Two people familiar with the talks said Iran and Oman were working to finalise a temporary deal under which ships would enter the strait through a route close to Iran and leave through one close to Oman. They said vessels would not pay fees or tolls during the interim period.

According to the two people, the proposed agreement is meant to restore an earlier, separate deal between the US and Iran and restart a 60-day clock for negotiations over Iran's nuclear programme. They said members of the Gulf Cooperation Council back the arrangement and that, once finalised, it is expected to be announced jointly by Iran, Oman, the US and the United Nations' International Maritime Organisation. They also said the terms could still change before the deal is completed.

On the US side, Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said on Saturday that the department was focused on boosting munitions acquisitions to provide "the weapons our warfighters need at the pace the threat demands". A new analysis from the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank, said the war with Iran had used up more of the US military's already diminished stockpiles of advanced missile interceptors. Parnell said the effort to speed up deliveries was part of a broader modernisation drive that had begun before the five-month-old conflict.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said negotiations with Oman on "new maritime routes" through the Strait of Hormuz were "in the final stages". "This, however, does not mean that the Strait of Hormuz will reopen," he told reporters in Tehran on Sunday. "An agreement on the routes may be reached, but reopening the strait is subject to a number of other conditions, which have been conveyed through intermediaries."

Iran's Supreme National Security Council said the strait would not reopen until the US "corrects its behaviour". In a statement published by state broadcaster and attributed to the council's secretary, Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr, the demands included that the US must never threaten Iran again, there must be a permanent end to the war with Iran and its armed allies in the region, the naval blockade of Iranian ports must be lifted, and US forces must withdraw from the area. US Central Command said the blockade had redirected 53 commercial vessels, disabled two and boarded two through Saturday.

On broader diplomacy, Araghchi said an "exchange of messages through intermediaries" was continuing with the US, but added that this did not amount to negotiations. "From our perspective, negotiations cannot resume until the violations of the memorandum of understanding have ended and the United States has remedied the provisions of the memorandum that it violated," he said.

Iran's semiofficial Mehr news agency also shared an undated video apparently showing Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei. The footage could not be independently verified for time or location. Mehr had shared another video in March that appeared to have been recorded at the same event, apparently a jurisprudence class. Khamenei is understood to have stopped publicly teaching in 2024, and he has not been seen in public since reportedly suffering serious injuries during the opening stages of the US-Iran war. It was not clear why Mehr released the footage on Saturday.

In Israel, Netanyahu said at the weekly cabinet meeting that the military "will not carry out any withdrawal until Hamas is genuinely disarmed". He said Israel was discussing plans for Gaza with the United States, and that some American ideas were acceptable to Israel while others were not, in a further pushback against the deal announced by President Donald Trump.

Overall, the day saw fresh Houthi attacks on Saudi and Yemeni targets, new movement and new conditions around the Strait of Hormuz, continued US concern over weapons supplies, an unexplained video release from Iranian media, and a renewed Israeli insistence that any withdrawal from Gaza depends on Hamas disarming.

With PTI Inputs

- Ends