Hormuz and Saudi Attacks Escalate Middle East War, Disrupt Global Oil Supply
Escalating Tensions and Oil Supply Disruptions in the Middle East
By Mohammed Ghobari and Nayera Abdallah
New Strikes Heighten Regional Instability
ADEN/DUBAI, Sept 13 (Reuters) - New strikes on Saudi Arabia and on ships in the Gulf tested nerves in the Middle East on Sunday, after an attack on a Saudi oil pipeline and an advance by Yemen's Houthis threatened to worsen the wartime disruption to global energy supplies.
Oil traders were expecting prices to rise again when markets reopen on Monday, following the weekend developments that jeopardise supplies from the world's biggest exporter, Saudi Arabia.
Strait of Hormuz Incident
The British maritime security agency UKMTO said on Sunday that a vessel had been struck by a projectile as it moved through the Strait of Hormuz, causing a fire and forcing the crew to be evacuated. Iran, for its part, said one person was killed and four crew wounded aboard an Iranian commercial vessel struck off its coast.
Houthi Attacks in Saudi Arabia
In Saudi Arabia, state media released video of damage to homes and a mosque from the purported latest cross-border attack by the Houthis, in Jazan province in the south. The Houthis claimed separately to have struck a Saudi military base in a neighbouring province.
Southern Saudi cities have experienced regular alerts since last week, culminating in drone strikes on Friday that knocked out the 1,200-km (745-mile) east-west pipeline across the Arabian Peninsula that has served as the main route for global supplies of Middle East oil bypassing the Strait of Hormuz.
That same day, the Houthis captured Perim Island, which lies in the middle of the Bab El-Mandeb, the "Gate of Tears" strait that controls the mouth of the Red Sea.
Impact on Global Oil Markets
U.S. Diesel Hits Another Record
Oil prices surged above $100 last week for the first time since July. The politically sensitive retail price of diesel fuel in the United States rose on Sunday to another all-time high above $6.20 a gallon.
Traders and Saudi oil buyers told Reuters on Sunday that Riyadh has enough oil stored at its Red Sea port of Yanbu to maintain exports for just five to seven days if the pipeline struck on Friday remains shut.
After that, as much as 4% of global oil supply could be jeopardised, on top of the millions of barrels a day already lost to the disruption to traffic through the Strait of Hormuz.
Saudi Arabia has not given full details of the extent of damage to the pipeline or said how long it will remain offline. Sources that spoke to Reuters have given conflicting estimates for the time needed to fix it, ranging from days to weeks. Satellite images have shown huge columns of smoke from locations along the pipeline.
Diplomatic Efforts and Setbacks
Talks in Oman Postponed
After a quiet August when flows of Middle East oil trickled back up, the past two weeks have seen a steady escalation in the war that the United States and Israel launched six months ago. No peace talks have been held since an interim agreement in June collapsed after a few weeks.
In a rare diplomatic initiative, Iranian officials had said they would attend a meeting on Monday with Gulf Arab states in Oman to present an agreement they say has been reached with Oman governing future shipping routes through the strait.
But Oman's foreign minister, Sayyid Badr Albusaidi, posted late Sunday that the regional meeting had been postponed "in the interests of consensus."
"We remain committed to fostering dialogue that supports stability and lasting cooperation in our region," he wrote in a post on X.
Iran's Fars news agency cited an Iranian foreign ministry official on Sunday evening as saying that the Oman meeting was postponed at the request of some regional countries in a decision jointly made by Tehran and Muscat. The official said Iran would coordinate with Oman to determine a suitable date for holding the meeting, the agency said.
Iraq had said it would send a delegation, and a Gulf official had told Reuters that Saudi Arabia and Qatar would be represented by their foreign ministers.
A senior Iranian official had told Reuters on Saturday that officials would discuss Hormuz and other issues at the meeting, but added it would probably not yield a signed agreement to reopen the strait. Bahrain said it would not meet with any Iranians.
In an interview with London-based pan-Arab news outlet Al-Arabi Al-Jadeed, Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said despite any agreement with Oman, Iran would not reopen the strait until the United States satisfies Tehran's demands.
Houthi Advances and U.S. Policy Challenges
Houthi Advances Pose New Dilemma for Washington
The U.S. has so far failed to achieve the objectives President Donald Trump set out when he launched "Operation Epic Fury" in February: to end Iran's nuclear programme, prevent it from being able to attack its neighbours and create conditions for its people to topple their rulers.
Iran, having withstood the superpower onslaught despite military and economic losses, hopes to emerge stronger than before the war, including with the newfound power to collect fees from ships that use the strait.
The attacks on Saudi Arabia and the Houthi advances in Yemen pose a new dilemma for Washington, which wants to support its Saudi allies and protect shipping but is wary of joining war on another front. The Houthi attacks have also left Gulf states with a difficult choice: accept growing economic pain or engage with Iran.
The Houthis' Role in the Conflict
The Houthis, mountain fighters who captured Yemen's capital in 2014, have been battling a Saudi-led coalition for more than a decade but had mostly kept out of the wider Middle East war until recent weeks. Their advance along the Red Sea coast is part of the biggest eruption of fighting in Yemen for years.
The United States bombed the Houthis for two months in 2025, but Trump halted that campaign after announcing the group had lifted a threat to attack Red Sea shipping.
Three sources told Reuters that Saudi Arabia's de facto leader, Crown Prince Mohammed