CAIRO/ WASHINGTON/DUBAI: Iran-aligned Houthis seized control of Yemen's port city of Mocha on Thursday and advanced down the Red Sea coast to strategic islands, military sources said. Yemeni government military sources said the Houthis had gained further leverage over the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, the southern outlet of the Red Sea and one of the world's most important shipping routes, and had reached the islands of Hanish.
Yemen's Houthi-run humanitarian operations coordination centre said in a statement that Red Sea navigation is safe for all shipping companies except for Saudi vessels. Saudi Arabia, the world's largest oil exporter, has relied on the Red Sea route since the Iran conflict effectively closed Hormuz, through which a fifth of global oil used to flow. Houthi spokesperson Mohammed Abdulsalam said, without elaborating, that the group's operations were defensive and would stop once attacks on Yemen stopped.
Tensions in the region remained high, with Saudi civil defence authorities issuing emergency alerts in the southwestern city of Khamis Mushait for the fourth time in 24 hours, as the Houthis attacked. Yemeni government forces and their allies are relocating south along the Red Sea coast to Dhubab, which sits directly on the strait, across from the island of Perim, government military sources said. Control of Dhubab and the island is key to gaining hold of the strait, they said.
The UN nuclear watchdog's "political moves" will push countries to exit the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, the Secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council said on Thursday. Mohsen Rezaei made his comments a day after the International Atomic Energy Agency's 35-nation board of governors passed a resolution reporting Iran to the UN Security Council for breaching its non-proliferation obligations.
A US official told The US military, the highest-funded in the world, suffered material damage even before Iran's strikes on Tuesday. This includes the destruction of more than two dozen drones, Iran striking fighter jets, and aircraft being lost to accidents. According to a May report from the Congressional Research Service, 42 US military aircraft had already been lost or damaged in the conflict.
Since the Iran war started in February, 18 US service members have been killed and over 800 injured. A US official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said Iran's attack hit one A-10 Thunderbolt II, known as the Warthog, leaving it with a missing wing, while roughly eight F-15s sustained light damage and were returned to service. The Iranian attack required US forces to fire roughly 30 Patriot interceptors to counter the missiles, the US official said, amid increasing concern about the inventory of US air defence interceptors and other missiles.
While specific inventory numbers are classified, the Centre for Strategic and International Studies has estimated that about 65 per cent of US Patriot interceptors were expended between February and July, with fewer than 850 left on hand, down from 2,330 before the Iran war began. Iran has resumed producing ballistic missiles from existing components while working in underground facilities, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday, citing officials from the United States and the Middle East.
The missiles are being assembled in more limited quantities than before the war, the report added. British police said on Thursday that two people have been arrested in London as part of an investigation into suspected National Security Act offences linked to Iran. London's Metropolitan Police said a 42-year-old woman and a 60-year-old man were arrested on Wednesday on suspicion of assisting a foreign intelligence service.
Both have been released on bail until a date in late October. Iran's government opposes a parliamentary bill that would impose tougher criminal penalties for activities deemed to constitute foreign influence or infiltration, state news agency IRNA reported on Thursday. The bill, backed by parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, would restrict contacts with foreign media and institutions, the sharing of information, scientific cooperation and other activities that authorities deem to facilitate foreign influence.
The elected government's opposition to the measure appears to signal pushback towards hardliners, who have supported enacting tougher security laws during the US-Israeli war on Iran. Iran has temporarily suspended a 10 per cent charge on freight fees for foreign vessels carrying imported or exported oil, gas and liquid petroleum products to and from Iran, the semi-official Fars news agency reported on Thursday. A US naval blockade has sharply disrupted the country's seaborne oil exports.
The presidential legal deputy ordered the collection to stop until the government approves and publishes a list of products subject to the charge, Fars said. Vessel transits via the Strait of Hormuz fell on Wednesday to seven from 12 the previous day, preliminary ship-tracking data showed on Thursday, with levels also below the 10-day average of 14. Out of these seven ships, four vessels exited and three entered, according to the data.
Dubai Airports expects annual passenger traffic to reach around 70 million by the end of the year, down from its previous target, CEO Paul Griffiths said on Thursday, noting that the original goal could now be reached by the end of 2027. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday the United States may hit Iran's Pickaxe Mountain, urging Tehran to be cautious. "We notice there's a little activity at Pickaxe.