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 and the United States remain at loggerheads over efforts to agree a permanent end to the war in the Gulf, according to a senior Iranian source who said there had been no progress in talks to revive the interim deal agreed in June and define a timeframe to implement it.
U.S. President Donald Trump accused Iran of being "devious negotiators" in an interview released late on Monday and described some of his current options in the war — "just bop along" and let Tehran fail economically or hit them "really, really hard."
Leaking crude oil from a tanker grounded off a nature reserve in Oman has created a slick covering almost 400 square kilometres, the country's government said on Monday.
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