Saudi Arabia relies on the Red Sea route since the Iran conflict effectively closed Hormuz
\nBab el-Mandeb
\nYemen\u2019s Houthis on Friday reached the strategic island of Perim in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, four Yemeni \u200cgovernment sources told Reuters, potentially tightening their grip on one of the world\u2019s vital shipping routes.
\nEarlier, two sources from the Saudi-backed, internationally recognised Yemeni government said its forces had withdrawn from Perim and that the Houthis had also taken the mainland Red Sea coastal town of Dhubab, which faces the island.
\nIf the Houthis gain full control of the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, on the opposite side of the Arabian Peninsula from the Strait of Hormuz, it could give Iran a critical advantage in the war with \u200bthe US, reducing supplies through a second major transit corridor and sending oil prices surging.
\nSaudi Arabia, the world\u2019s largest oil exporter, has relied on the Red Sea route since the Iran conflict effectively closed Hormuz, \u200bthrough which a fifth of global oil used to flow.<\/p>\n
Smoke seen above Saudi East-West oil pipeline
\nIn a further potentially significant development for Riyadh, satellite imagery showed smoke on Thursday in the vicinity of Saudi Arabia\u2019s East-West oil pipeline, which has become a vital means for the kingdom to divert its crude exports from Hormuz.
\nThere was no confirmation from Saudi Arabia osf any incident in the area. \u200bThe Saudi government media office and state oil giant Aramco did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the smoke visible in the imagery verified by Reuters.
\nAramco has used the East-West pipeline to ramp up crude flows \u200bfrom Saudi Arabia\u2019s eastern coast to the Red Sea to its west after U.S.-Israeli airstrikes on Iran began six months ago, prompting Tehran to effectively shut the Strait of Hormuz.
\nSaudi crude supply fell 2.3 million barrels per day on the month in August to 6 million bpd, the lowest level in more than three decades, the International Energy Agency said on Friday, partly due to the targeting of ships transiting the Bab el-Mandeb Strait by groups linked to Yemen\u2019s Houthis.
\nGlobal oil prices were on track to end \u200bthe week above $100 a barrel for the first time since mid-May, though they were slightly lower on Friday after the Financial Times reported that foreign ministers in the Middle East were trying to work out a temporary deal \u200bto manage shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.<\/p>\n
Yemeni government forces plot counter-offensive
\nYemeni government forces, meanwhile, indicated they would try to retake areas captured by the Houthis in their lightning offensive this week along the \u200cRed Sea coastline.
\nThey announced they would deploy weapons and aircraft to eliminate any movement of the \u201cterrorist\u201d Houthis in strategic areas, including the road leading to the coastal city of Mocha, which the group captured on Thursday along with the Red Sea islands of Hanish.
\nMilitary spokesman Colonel Majed al-Nazili called on civilians to avoid using the route between the city of Taiz and Mocha and steer clear of equipment belonging to the Houthis, mountain fighters who withstood years of devastating Saudi air strikes during Yemen\u2019s civil war.
\nFighting between the Houthis and the Yemeni government forces has intensified in recent days, with the Iran-aligned group shifting its focus to control over Yemen\u2019s long coastline instead of just the north and \u200bthe country\u2019s most populous areas.
\nReuters reported on Thursday that \u200bthe dramatic Houthi advance down Yemen\u2019s Red Sea coast this week came with direct guidance from Iran\u2019s Revolutionary Guards seeking to open a new front in Tehran\u2019s war with the US, according to Yemeni government, Iranian and regional sources.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Saudi Arabia relies on the Red Sea route since the Iran conflict effectively closed Hormuz Bab el-Mandeb Yemen\u2019s Houthis on Friday reached the strategic island of Perim in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, four Yemeni \u200cgovernment sources told Reuters, potentially tightening their grip on one of the world\u2019s vital shipping routes. Earlier, two sources from the …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":102882,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-102871","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102871","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=102871"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102871\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":102895,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102871\/revisions\/102895"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/102882"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102871"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=102871"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=102871"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}