Gulf states cancel Iran talks; Houthis attack Saudi Arabia again

Arab states in the Gulf called off a meeting with Iran planned for Monday, while Yemen’s Houthis launched a new attack on Saudi Arabia after fighting that has extended the West Asia war to another theatre and further jeopardised global oil supplies.

The Iran-aligned Houthis said they fired dozens of missiles and drones at a military airbase in Khamis Mushait in southern Saudi Arabia, hitting aircraft hangars, radar systems, runways and ammunition depots. They described the attack as retaliation for hundreds of Saudi air strikes on Yemen in recent days.

Saudi Arabian authorities announced several emergency alerts there and in three other southern cities that have previously come under Houthi fire.

The Houthis launched a lightning advance last week in Yemen, culminating in the seizure of an island at the mouth of the Red Sea on Friday. A separate attack that day, which Riyadh blamed on Iran-backed fighters in Iraq, knocked out Saudi Arabia’s East-West Pipeline, the main route for West Asian oil bypassing the blockaded Strait of Hormuz.

Crude oil prices rose more than 4 per cent on Monday when the market reopened after the weekend’s developments, with benchmark Brent crude futures above $109 a barrel. The politically sensitive average retail price of diesel in the United States (US) hit a new all-time high of more than $6.23 a gallon.

Traders say that if the Saudi pipeline remains shut for more than a few days, it could cut off as much as 4 per cent of global oil supply. Images from space show sections of the pipeline damaged by fires. Riyadh has not given a firm estimate of how long it will remain shut.

Oman had been due to host a meeting on Monday with Iran and Gulf states to discuss negotiations aimed at reopening Hormuz, the world’s most important oil shipping lane, which has been largely closed since the US and Israel attacked Iran at the end of February. But Oman’s Foreign Minister Sayyid Badr Albusaidi announced overnight that the meeting had been postponed. Iran said the postponement was at Saudi Arabia’s request.

Meanwhile, Iran issued a list of 77 ships it said had violated its protocols for operating in the Strait of Hormuz. Any ship on the list would face “restrictions on future passages, including fines, detention, or confiscation”.

US Energy Secretary Chris Wright said on Monday that the average number of ships crossing the strait covertly with US support was increasing. But independent monitors have suggested that oil flows could have dropped this month since fighting re-escalated after a quiet August.

Saudi state media reported that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had met the commander of US regional forces, Admiral Brad Cooper, in Jeddah on Monday.

Three sources have told Reuters that Washington has so far rebuffed pleas from the prince to intervene in Yemen beyond providing intelligence. Trump confirmed over the weekend that he had spoken to the prince and said the Houthis had also called, asking Washington to stay out of the dispute.

Iran on Monday condemned the exclusion of the head of its Atomic Energy Organisation from the annual gathering of the United Nations nuclear agency in Vienna, saying that it constituted “a serious breach” of Tehran’s rights as a member nation. “By obstructing our full and effective participation, the denial of access contravenes both the letter and the spirit of the legal framework” governing attendance at meetings of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Iran’s ambassador to the agency, Reza Najafi, told delegates at its general conference.