President Donald Trump threatened Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi rebels and Iran itself with "major military punishment" in a Truth Social post Thursday, after the group claimed responsibility for striking two Saudi oil tankers in the Red Sea.
The Houthis' SABA news agency said the rebels had struck two tankers, the Encelia and the Layla, sparking fires on both vessels © Mena Today
President Donald Trump threatened Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi rebels and Iran itself with "major military punishment" in a Truth Social post Thursday, after the group claimed responsibility for striking two Saudi oil tankers in the Red Sea.
"If they do this again, the U.S. will hold Iran responsible, in that the Houthis are a Surrogate and/or Proxy of Iran, and major military punishment will be inflicted upon Iran and, of course, the Houthis, themselves, who I am very disappointed with in that they have, until now, acted very professionally and smart," Trump wrote.
The president noted that the US had struck the Houthis "very powerfully" a year ago after they disrupted global shipping, and that the group had "acted very responsibly" during the broader conflict with Iran since then. "Unfortunately, now they are starting up again, shooting at two Saudi Arabian ships last night," he added.
The Houthis' SABA news agency said the rebels had struck two tankers, the Encelia and the Layla, sparking fires on both vessels, though no casualties were reported. It marked their first attack on a ship since declaring a naval blockade of Saudi-linked shipping in the Red Sea days earlier, raising fears of a new front opening in the Bab al-Mandeb strait, a critical chokepoint for global energy shipments, even as the Strait of Hormuz remains gripped by the ongoing US-Iran confrontation.
The attacks came as the US military carried out a 12th consecutive night of strikes on Iran. News of the tanker strikes sent oil prices surging, with Brent crude jumping more than 6% to top $100 a barrel for the first time since May.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, traveling in Asia, said he hoped the situation would de-escalate. "I think the Houthis, frankly, got snookered into this thing by the Iranians," he said. "They should stay out of it."
Iran said on Sunday that a deal with Oman defining new shipping lanes in the Strait of Hormuz was in its final stages but reiterated that the waterway would only reopen once the United States met other conditions.
A defence pact signed between Turkey, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia is technically the same as NATO's Article 5 mutual defence agreement, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said on Saturday, adding the accord was not targeting Iran.
US Senators Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) and James Lankford (R-OK) introduced legislation Thursday that would authorize up to $1.2 billion in security assistance to Lebanon over five years, with part of the funding conditioned on Beirut's progress toward a state monopoly on arms and the disarmament of Hezbollah.
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