Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthi militants fired on Saudi oil installations in two ports on the Red Sea coast on Saturday, but the US held back from launching air strikes on Iran for the first night in two weeks.

Washington gave no immediate explanation of why it ⁠had abruptly halted a streak of 13 nights of escalating strikes in retaliation for Iranian attacks on shipping in the Strait of Hormuz since an interim deal to end hostilities collapsed.

"It seems that our dear Iran had a peaceful night last night," Health Ministry spokesperson Hossein Kermanpour said on X.

There were also no reports on Saturday of attacks from Iran on its Gulf neighbours, like those which have been taking place daily in response to the US attacks.

Axios, citing two unidentified sources familiar with the matter, said US President Donald Trump on Friday directed the military not to conduct new strikes against Iran. The Pentagon and the White House did not return messages seeking comment on the pause in air strikes or on the Axios report.

On Friday, Trump said the US and Iran were in talks to negotiate an end to their conflict, but repeated that Tehran was not yet ready for a deal.

Despite the lull in the Gulf, fighting between Iran's ⁠Houthi allies and Saudi Arabia was a sign that the war, which has already disrupted energy supplies through the Strait of Hormuz, could be ⁠spreading to a second major shipping route, and reigniting ⁠Yemen's own civil war.

Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Saree said the group had successfully struck sites belonging to Saudi state oil giant Aramco in Jizan and Yanbu.

In Yanbu, two ballistic missiles aimed at oil installations were intercepted by a US-made Patriot battery operated in Saudi Arabia by the Greek military under an agreement with Riyadh, Greek security sources said.

Yanbu is Saudi Arabia's main Red Sea oil port, where millions of barrels a day are loaded, and has become the main route out for Saudi oil ⁠skirting the Strait of Hormuz, which has been blockaded by Iran.

Jizan, on the Red Sea close to the Yemeni border, is the site of a refinery with a capacity of 400,000 barrels per day.

In Yemen, the air force of the Saudi-backed, internationally recognised government, which has opposed the Houthis for more than a decade, struck Houthi missile and drone launch sites and arms depots in the Marib and al-Jawf provinces, Yemeni officials said.

Earlier, the Saudi-led military alliance said it had bombed Houthi military positions on Friday in the Red Sea port of Hodeidah.

The Yemeni officials said both sides in Yemen's civil war were mobilising forces along the front.

Global oil prices soared this week, with Brent crude spiking above $100 a barrel for the first time since May. (Reuters)



Edited by Cecil Wong