Sanaa (AFP) - Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels said they had launched missile and drone salvos against Saudi Arabia’s oil facilities on Saturday, as fighting between regional allies of the United States and Iran intensified on a new front.

In a video statement, military spokesman Yahya Saree said the rebels targeted sites operated by the Saudi oil giant Aramco in Jizan and Yanbu, threatening to expand the group’s response if attacked by the Gulf monarchy.

Earlier, the rebels’ media had said a strike on Jizan had sparked fires. A video circulating on social media, and verified by AFP, showed dark clouds rising above a refinery belonging to Aramco in the city.

Saudi Arabia made no direct comment on the attack but the kingdom’s civil defence issued warnings for Jizan, on the kingdom’s southwestern coast, as well as in Yanbu to the north.

A surface-to-air battery operated by Greek personnel in Saudi Arabia downed two ballistic missiles and later a drone launched from Yemen targeting Yanbu on Saturday morning, the Greek air force press office said.

The Iran-backed group had accused US ally Saudi Arabia of a “dangerous escalation” after Riyadh struck Houthi targets in Yemen on Friday.

A Yemeni security source told AFP a naval base in the port city of Hodeida and a military camp on Kamaran Island were among the Saudi targets.

The renewed exchange of fire between the US and Iranian allies signals the emergence of a new front in the Middle East war following US and Israeli strikes on Iran at the end of February.

- ‘Back to strikes’ -

Faiza, a 36-year-old mother of two and Hodeida resident, told AFP the strikes were like “the sound of loud thunder”, explaining she had heard three distinct explosions.

“I didn’t want to believe that we had gone back to strikes,” she added.

Yemen’s Houthis have been at war with the internationally recognised, Saudi-backed government since 2015, in a devastating conflict that has killed hundreds of thousands and triggered a major humanitarian crisis.

However, fighting in the poverty-stricken Arabian peninsula country had been largely frozen since a UN-negotiated truce in 2022.

This week the Houthis announced a maritime blockade of the top oil exporter, hitting Saudi tankers in the Red Sea.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi insisted Tehran could not be blamed for the situation, and offered to help start a dialogue between the Houthis and the Saudis, arguing that “there is no military solution to the issue”.

The threat to shipping comes in parallel with Iran’s blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, which has become the central flashpoint between Tehran and Washington amid renewed hostilities between the two sides.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said on Saturday their forces stopped four ships attempting to transit the strategic chokepoint over the past 24 hours.

A fresh incident involving a tanker and unspecified military forces was reported on Saturday near the Strait of Hormuz, according to the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations monitor.

The US did not announce strikes on Iran, a first after 13 nights of consecutive bombardments.

According to a report on the Axios news platform, the Pentagon had presented US President Donald Trump with plan for a 14th night of strikes, but that Trump had decided not to authorise it, favouring a push for renewed talks.

- ‘Tipping point’ -

Trump said on Friday he had not yet decided whether to return to an all-out major operation against Iran.

“Look, we’re talking to them right now. I think they’re getting more and more serious as the days go by, for maybe the obvious reason,” Trump told journalists.

Trump said Iran had a choice between making a deal or facing a “much higher level” of strikes, after two weeks of US attacks left an April ceasefire in tatters.

The war that Trump once predicted would last four or five weeks is now nearing its fifth month, and is weighing on the Republican’s approval ratings ahead of crucial US midterm elections in November.

Trump added that he did not know what the “tipping point” would be for a decision, but reiterated that his red line would be if Iran was close to developing a nuclear weapon.

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