\u2060The Iranian-aligned Houthis on Thursday claimed military strikes on two Saudi oil tankers as part of a naval blockade on Saudi Arabia, further raising the risk of a second chokehold on world oil supplies at the Red Sea in coordination with Iran\u2019s attempt to control the Strait of Hormuz.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile the US military said on Wednesday it launched a new round of strikes on Iran at President Donald Trump\u2019s direction, marking a 12th successive night of American attacks.<\/p>\n
The Yemen-based militants, who control areas near the Bab el-Mandeb Strait on the opposite end of the Arabian Peninsula from the Strait of Hormuz, said on Monday \u200cthey were imposing a naval blockade on Saudi Arabia in what some analysts have viewed as a tactical move by Iran to seek leverage in any diplomatic efforts to end the war.<\/p>\n
Even before the renewed threats to shipping traffic in the Red Sea, Iran\u2019s near-total blockade of the Strait of Hormuz had stoked inflation around the world, pushing up oil prices and squeezing US petrol consumers at a time when the unpopular war has put Trump\u2019s Republican allies under pressure ahead of congressional elections in November.<\/p>\n
Five tankers changed course in the Red Sea to avoid the Bab el-Mandeb Strait on Wednesday, and three tankers loaded with Saudi oil for China and India made U-turns on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Why the vital Red Sea shipping lane may be the new frontline in the US-Iran war<\/p>\n
Then the Houthis said their forces carried out missile and drone strikes on two Saudi oil tankers in the Red Sea, identifying them as the Encelia and the Layla.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u2060The Iranian-aligned Houthis on Thursday claimed military strikes on two Saudi oil tankers as part of a naval…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":219057,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3],"tags":[63215,11215,262,38,63214,102,379,138,34,63212,63213,1000,50,1720,3651],"class_list":["post-219056","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-iran","tag-al-shuqaiq","tag-bab-el-mandeb-strait","tag-china","tag-donald-trump","tag-encelia","tag-hormuz","tag-houthis","tag-india","tag-iran","tag-jizan","tag-layla","tag-red-sea","tag-saudi-arabia","tag-suez-canal","tag-yanbu"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116966495436667035","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219056","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=219056"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219056\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/219057"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=219056"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=219056"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=219056"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}