Houthis Claim Drone Strike on Saudi Aramco Refinery as Regional Tensions Widen
A fire at Aramco's Jizan refinery was put out with no injuries reported, Saudi officials said, hours after Yemen's Houthi movement claimed a drone strike on the site. The incident came as Iran set conditions for reopening the Strait of Hormuz and three regional powers signed a new mutual defense pact.
A fire broke out before dawn on Sunday at a facility belonging to the Saudi state oil company Aramco in the Red Sea city of Jizan, and firefighters put it out with no injuries reported, the Saudi Ministry of Energy said in a statement on X. The ministry said authorities were still working through the procedures for handling the incident and did not say what caused the fire.
Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi movement claimed responsibility within hours. Yahya Saree, a military spokesman for the Houthi-led government in Sanaa, wrote on X that the group had hit the Aramco refinery in Jizan with a drone and called the strike "precise." He said it was carried out in response to what he described as Saudi violations of airspace over Yemen's Saada and Hajjah provinces. Riyadh had not responded to the claim as of Sunday, Al Jazeera reported.
The Jizan refinery processes 400,000 barrels of crude oil a day and produces gasoline and ultra-light sulfur diesel, according to a report cited by France 24. The plant was shut down on July 27 after an earlier Houthi attack damaged its gasification complex and tank storage area, according to a note from the consultancy IIR seen by Reuters. The Houthis have also claimed strikes on Aramco facilities in Yanbu, another major export hub on Saudi Arabia's west coast. Aramco's chief executive, Amin Nasser, said last week the attacks had caused some production interruptions but no material financial impact, and that operations could be restored quickly.
A truce under strain
The strikes have piled pressure on a 2022 truce between the Houthis and Yemen's internationally recognized government, which Saudi Arabia backs. The Houthis declared a blockade on Saudi Arabia in the Red Sea last month and have threatened shipping through the Bab al-Mandeb strait. On Thursday, the Houthis killed at least 58 Yemeni government troops in missile and drone attacks, a military source told Agence France-Presse, in one of the deadliest days of the conflict in years.
Wider regional realignment
The attack came two days after Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan signed the "Mecca Joint Defense Agreement" in Riyadh, a mutual defense pact under which an attack on one signatory would be treated as an attack on all, Pakistan's Foreign Ministry said. Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan likened it to NATO's Article 5 but said it was not directed at any specific country and had been under discussion for two years, predating the war between the United States, Israel and Iran. Fidan said he expects Egypt to eventually join.
Separately, Iran's Revolutionary Guards said Sunday that the Strait of Hormuz will not reopen until Washington accepts all of Tehran's conditions, including compensation for war damage, according to comments carried by Iranian state television. Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Iran is not holding direct talks with the United States while it considers the June Islamabad memorandum breached, though messages are being passed through intermediaries.
Sources
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