Troops from Eritrea reportedly crossed the border into Ethiopia on Wednesday, apparently to conduct “surveillance” on two towns in Tigray, the restless tribal province that is once again clashing with Ethiopia’s central government.
The internationally-recognized government of Yemen said on Monday that its forces staged a successful counterattack against the Iran-backed Houthi insurgency and recaptured key positions around the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, a vital chokepoint along the Red Sea shipping route.
The European Union’s top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, said Monday the E.U.’s ongoing naval security mission across the Red Sea needs to boost its numbers and include more warships, deeming the current size of the deployment insufficient amid intensified attacks from the Iran-backed Houthi terrorists.
The Houthi offensive in Yemen has displaced over 82,000 people since the beginning of September, over 3,000 of whom have fled to Djibouti.
After Iran struck out with BRICS and China this week in its search for international support, China reportedly privately told the Iranians to rein in their proxies in Yemen, the Houthi insurgents, who have repeatedly attacked Saudi Arabia and sought to block Saudi shipping through the Bab el Mandeb Strait.
Saudi Arabia and the Iran-backed Houthi insurgents of Yemen exchanged more cross-border drone, missile, and aircraft strikes on Thursday.
Italy will not wait for Brussels’ notoriously slow bureaucracy to react and is preparing to deploy navy ships at the Bab el-Mandeb Strait on its own to protect Italian merchant vessels in the area, Defense Minister Guido Crosetto said on Thursday.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi urged Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and return to the June memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the United States when he met with visiting Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi in Beijing on Wednesday.
Israel has begun providing intelligence to Saudi Arabia through the United States as Riyadh battles an escalating Houthi offensive that has struck deep inside the kingdom and threatened the strategic Bab el-Mandeb Strait, according to multiple Israeli reports Tuesday.
The Iran-backed Houthi insurgents of Yemen continued attacking targets in Saudi Arabia on Monday, prompting Saudi authorities to issue civil defense alerts in several southern cities — including, for the first time, the Muslim holy city of Mecca.
A planned conference with Iran and the Gulf Arab states over the future of the Strait of Hormuz was postponed by Saudi Arabia.
The Iran-backed Houthi insurgents of Yemen on Friday declared they have taken control of Perim, a small volcanic island in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, a vital shipping chokepoint that connects the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden. The capture came one day after the Houthis took control of the port city of Mokha with assistance from Iran.
Pakistan delivered a warning to Iran on Wednesday that if Tehran’s terrorist proxies in Yemen, the Houthis, continue attacking cities and oil facilities in Saudi Arabia, Pakistan may be obliged to intervene under its defense pact with the Saudis.
Intense fighting between the Iran-backed Houthi insurgents and the internationally recognized government of Yemen continued on Wednesday.
The Iran-backed Houthi insurgents of Yemen launched drone and missile attacks against four cities in southern Saudi Arabia.
Chinese dictator Xi Jinping was greeted at the airport in Cairo by Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el Sisi and his wife Entisar Amer on Tuesday, as Xi flew from the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) meeting in Kazakhstan to make a state visit to Egypt.
The Iran-backed Houthi insurgents of Yemen on Thursday claimed they “successfully carried out two military operations using drones,” including attacks on the airport and an oil facility in the Saudi Arabian city of Najran.
Chinese state-run shipping companies COSCO and CMES hare reportedly stopped trying to send their oil tankers through the Strait of Hormuz.
Trade industry sources said on Tuesday that Saudi Aramco, the national oil company of Saudi Arabia, has resumed loading tankers with product at its Juaymah and Ras Tanura oil terminals, which lie within the contested waters of the Strait of Hormuz.
The Iran-backed Houthi insurgents of Yemen claimed responsibility for a murderous “double tap” strike on a ship in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait on Tuesday, using three ballistic missiles to set the ship on fire — and then launching another missile in a deliberate attack on rescue teams, killing at least six people.
A Chinese shipping company called Sea Legend is reportedly opening an “Ice Silk Road” shipping lane through the Arctic to avoid the volatile Middle East and chokepoints like the Strait of Hormuz.
Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS), Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif met in the Saudi city of Mecca on Friday to sign a pact called the Mecca Joint Defense Agreement.
The Houthi Iranian proxy terror organization in Yemen proudly announced on Thursday the alleged killing or injuring of hundreds of “Saudi enemy mercenaries” in a large attack on military assets associated with the legitimate government of Yemen.
Ship tracking data released on Monday showed six Saudi-flagged supertankers turning away from the Gulf of Aden and heading for southern Africa to avoid the Red Sea. The Iran-backed Houthi insurgents of Yemen have declared a “maritime ban” on Saudi shipping, backed up by terror attacks.
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS), the de facto chief executive of Saudi Arabia, reportedly urged President Donald Trump to avoid turning the Iran crisis into a “wider conflict whose repercussions would affect regional and international security and stability” when they spoke by telephone on Sunday.
Saudi Arabia on Thursday held the first planning session for its proposed Red Sea maritime defense coalition which would secure the vital trading passage through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait and Gulf of Aden against piracy and terrorism, primarily from the Iran-backed Houthi separatists of Yemen.
A consortium of companies from the U.S. and Saudi Arabia plans a $5 billion oil refinery outside the Strait of Hormuz.
Iran is reportedly anticipating the first delivery installment of 400 Chinese-made shoulder-fired surface-to-air missiles within a matter of weeks, the fruit of a deal worth over $60 million arranged by a Hong Kong-based intermediary.
The Iran-backed Houthi insurgents of Iran are reportedly considering a plan to extort “fees” for safe passage of international shipping vessels in the Red Sea, modeled on Iran’s plans to collect ransoms for shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.
Saudi Arabia’s defense ministry announced on Monday that it intercepted multiple drones targeting eastern oil facilities that were launched by Iran-controlled Shiite militia forces in Iraq.
With a pause in U.S. attacks stretching into a fourth day on Monday, Iran has shifted its aggression toward Saudi Arabia, and especially at sabotaging Saudi efforts to shift their oil exports from the Strait of Hormuz into the Red Sea.
President Donald Trump said Thursday that he is close to deciding whether to order a “massive attack” on Iran “bigger than ever before,” as the United States expands its military campaign against the Islamic Republic, reinforces its force posture across the region, and warns Tehran that further escalation will bring increasingly severe consequences.
The oil-producing nations of the Persian Gulf are stepping up their efforts to divert shipping away from the Strait of Hormuz, where Iran has been launching terror strikes on civilian vessels.
Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels claimed dual attacks on Saudi oil tankers in the Red Sea early Thursday morning as the U.S. military conducted a 12th night of strikes against Iran infrastructure – military and civil.
International and U.S. benchmark oil surged by over 4 percent on Wednesday amid renewed fears of supply disruptions, as Iran’s terrorist proxies in Yemen began implementing their “maritime ban” against Saudi Arabian oil tankers in the Red Sea, turning several ships away with threats of force.
Iran’s attacks on neighboring countries are causing massive disruptions of commerce and travel in Jordan, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia, from reduced oil exports to canceled airline flights, even though most of Iran’s missiles and drones have been intercepted.
The Iran-backed Houthi insurgents of Yemen on Monday declared a “maritime ban” against Saudi Arabia, implicitly a threat to attack Saudi oil tankers passing through the Red Sea on their way to the Suez Canal.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) on Wednesday threatened to cut off all supplies of Middle Eastern oil to the rest of the world, in retaliation for the restored U.S. blockade of Iranian ports.
The Iran-backed Houthi terrorist insurgents of Yemen on Monday condemned Saudi Arabia for allegedly bombing the airport in Yemen’s occupied capital city of Sanaa and launched missiles against Saudi targets to retaliate for the act of “blatant aggression.”
A cargo ship came under attack Sunday off the coast of Yemen in the Red Sea, the British military said, the latest maritime attack off the conflict-torn Arab country.
