Iran, U.S. Trade Threats as Houthis Strike Riyadh — SkimNews
Get the Geopolitics newsletter
Daily geopolitics — wars, elections, sanctions, the diplomatic moves that move markets. Free.
- Donald Trump told Iran's leaders to make a deal, "rot economically" or be "wiped out," while simultaneously saying he'd be open to meeting Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian at this week's UN General Assembly in New York.
- Iran's military warned it would retaliate harshly against U.S. bases and treat regional allies as parties to the conflict if attacked, claiming — without elaborating — that it had intelligence an attack was being prepared.
- Houthi forces launched missile and drone strikes on Riyadh overnight Saturday, with Reuters video showing a massive black smoke plume near the Saudi capital's main international airport; the U.S. State Department issued a security alert warning Americans of potential flight cancellations and airspace closures.
- Recent Houthi coastal gains in Yemen's reignited civil war place the group on the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, giving the Iran-backed forces the ability to blockade shipping between Asia and the Red Sea.
- Combined with Iran's blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, the oil-rich Gulf's energy exports are now "almost entirely cut off from global markets," adding pressure on oil prices.
- A U.S. blockade of Iranian ports is preventing Iran from selling its own oil and deepening economic damage in the Islamic Republic, while Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf said Iran must keep fighting to consolidate gains alongside diplomacy.
- The June interim ceasefire fell apart in July amid disputes over its terms, and Iran reiterated Sunday it will not reopen the Strait of Hormuz until that agreement's terms, as Tehran interprets them, are met.
Why it matters: The Hormuz and Bab el-Mandeb blockades have effectively severed Gulf energy exports from global markets, while a U.S. port blockade starves Iran of oil revenue. With Trump open to a Pezeshkian meeting at the UN this week, the diplomatic window sits alongside a military escalation that is already producing strikes on Riyadh.
Ask SkimNews
