Iran-backed Houthi rebels have reportedly taken control of the Yemen coastline along the Red Sea, aside one of the world’s most important shipping lanes, the Bab el-Mandeb Strait.
On Thursday as the attacks in Yemen progressed, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman called Trump twice, urging him to launch strikes against the Houthis. Trump declined, with US officials telling MBS that the US focus is to remain on the Strait of Hormuz.
Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest oil exporter, has had to rely on the Red Sea route given the disruption to the Strait of Hormuz, through which some 20 percent of the world’s oil typically passes.
According to reports with satellite and video images, fire and smoke was visible along the Saudi’s main East-West oil pipeline after a suspected strike by the Houthis.
The pipeline carries Saudi crude from Abqaiq to Yanbu on the Red Sea, which is Saudi Arabia’s only export route that does not pass through the Strait of Hormuz, access to which has been blocked because of the war in Iran.
There has been no confirmation that the pipeline is the source of the fire seen by satellite and on-the-ground imagery.