Houthis Claim Missile Strike on Saudi Jizan After Retaliation Vow
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- Houthis claimed a 'Yemeni missile strike' hit Saudi Arabia's Jizan city causing fires, prompting emergency alerts, after Saudi Arabia launched air strikes on Houthi targets in Hodeida and a nearby island on Friday.
- The US military did not announce fresh strikes on Iran on Saturday, the first pause after 13 consecutive nights of attacks during which Iran launched drone strikes on US military facilities across the Middle East.
- Trump said Iran is 'being by far the most serious' in negotiations while declaring 'we're locked and loaded,' framing his options as continued escalation or 'a smarter strategy that you make a deal.'
- US forces disabled a tanker ship in the Gulf of Oman that attempted to evade the American blockade on Iranian ports four times — the second commercial vessel disabled since the blockade was reimposed earlier this month.
- Oil prices briefly surged past $100/barrel on Houthi Red Sea threats, then dropped over $4 to roughly $96 after two Chinese-chartered supertankers successfully transited the Bab el-Mandeb Strait.
- An Omani delegation arrived in Tehran for Strait of Hormuz talks; the US and UK will hold a London conference next week on the same waterway, attended by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Joint Chiefs Chairman Dan Caine.
Why it matters: The Houthi-Saudi exchange shows the Iran-conflict front widening even as US strikes pause, and the $4 oil drop after Chinese supertankers cleared Bab el-Mandeb demonstrates how a single shipping corridor dictates crude prices — making Houthi threats to Red Sea traffic a direct lever on global energy costs and US leverage over Iran.
