AMERICANS HESITANT TO STEP IN
The renewed Yemen conflict poses another challenge for US President Donald Trump.
Three sources have told Reuters that Washington has so far resisted Saudi requests for direct military intervention beyond intelligence support. Trump said over the weekend he had spoken with the Saudi crown prince and that the Houthis had also contacted Washington urging it to stay out of the conflict.
Saudi state media reported that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman met US regional commander Admiral Brad Cooper in Jeddah on Monday.
Saudi Arabia has led a coalition battling the Houthis since 2015, but the conflict had largely quietened under a ceasefire in recent years. Fighting reignited this month, with the Houthis pushing back forces aligned with the internationally recognised government.
HOPES FOR DIPLOMACY FADE
Oman had been due to host a meeting on Monday with Iran and Gulf states to discuss negotiations aimed at reopening the Strait of Hormuz, which before the war carried 20 per cent of the world’s oil exports. But Oman announced that the meeting had been postponed. Iran said the postponement was at the request of Saudi Arabia.
Trump on Monday repeated his frequent claim that Iran was eager to make a deal quickly, but Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, called the president’s message a distraction, saying on X, “No talks until Iran’s conditions are met”.
Underscoring the volatility of shipping through the region, conflicting reports circulated about how and when an oil tanker was damaged.
Without giving a date, Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps said the Panamanian-flagged oil tanker El Gaia was hit by sea mines as it passed through a prohibited zone south of the Strait of Hormuz, Iran’s Fars news agency reported on Monday.
But the U.S. military’s Central Command immediately said the report was false and the tanker was “struck by an Iranian missile last month and rendered inoperable.”
The United Nations’ International Maritime Organization reported El Gaia was damaged on Saturday, but did not say how, and that two seafarers were missing.
Reuters could not immediately contact the ship’s owners in Dubai to verify any of the accounts.
The world’s most important oil shipping lane has been mostly shut down since the war began on Feb 28, as Iran has threatened vessels that transit the waterway without its authority.
“The IRGC Navy firmly declares that the Strait of Hormuz is closed and still under our smart control,” the Revolutionary Guards said in the statement.
