WASHINGTON — Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthi militants fired on Saudi oil installations in two ports on the Red Sea coast Saturday, but the United States held back from launching air strikes on Iran itself for the first night in two weeks.
There was no immediate explanation from Washington of why it abruptly halted a streak of 13 nights of escalating strikes in retaliation for Iranian attacks on shipping in the Strait of Hormuz after an interim deal to end hostilities collapsed.
Axios, citing two unidentified sources familiar with the matter, said President Donald Trump 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 U.S. and Iran were in talks to negotiate an end to the conflict, but repeated that Tehran was not yet ready for a deal.
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"It seems that our dear Iran had a peaceful night last night," the country’s Health Ministry spokesperson Hossein Kermanpour said on social media.
There were also no reports Saturday of attacks from Iran on its Persian Gulf neighbors, which also took place daily in response to the U.S. attacks.
However, the strikes from Iran's Houthi allies on Saudi Arabia were a sign the war that disrupted energy supplies from the Gulf could be spreading to a second major shipping route, and reigniting Yemen's own civil war.
Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Saree said the group successfully struck sites belonging to Saudi state oil giant Aramco in Jizan and Yanbu. Video shared on social media and verified by Reuters showed a large column of smoke rising from the direction of the Aramco refinery in Jizan.
Two Asia-based trading sources said they were informed of potential damage to fuel and oil storage sites at Jizan. Aramco did not respond to requests for comment.
In Yanbu, two ballistic missiles aimed at oil installations were intercepted by a U.S.-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; it became the main route out for Saudi oil skirting the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran blockaded. 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 recognized government 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 bombed Houthi military positions Friday in the Red Sea port of Hodeidah.
The Yemeni officials said both sides in Yemen's civil war were mobilizing forces along the front.
Saudi Arabia led an Arab coalition battling against the Houthis for more than a decade since the Iran-aligned fighters captured Yemen's capital, Sanaa.
The Saudi-led coalition said it would continue to take necessary measures to protect its ships and Saudi Arabia's interests, and would respond "uncompromisingly" if the Houthis continue hostile actions.
Yemen's Houthi-run foreign ministry said Friday's strikes on Hodeidah marked the start of a phase of "escalation for escalation", and held Saudi Arabia responsible for any resulting developments.
Houthi-affiliated Al Masirah TV said the Saudi strikes hit facilities belonging to the state telecommunications corporation in Hodeidah city. The broadcaster also said Saudi forces targeted Kamaran Island, off Yemen's western coast.
Early on Saturday, Saudi Ambassador to Yemen Mohammed Al-Jaber said in social media posts that the kingdom would continue to support the entry of ships to Hodeidah Port despite Houthi attacks on shipping in the Red Sea.
The port's operation was a key matter of international concern during the Yemeni war a decade back, with a Saudi blockade on it at the time blamed for aggravating hunger and deprivation.
The Yemeni civil war, during which hundreds of thousands of people died from fighting and famine, was paused in 2022 under a ceasefire. That truce broke down this month, with the Houthis effectively joining the wider war their Iranian allies waged since being attacked by the U.S. and Israel on Feb. 28.
The Houthis declared a naval blockade of Saudi Arabia over the past week, and Houthi leader Abdul Malik al-Houthi said all Saudi oil facilities could be targets.
The move contributed in recent days to one of the war's sharpest rises in global oil prices, with Brent crude spiking above $100 a barrel for the first time since May.
Trump on Friday vowed "major military punishment" for Tehran and the Houthis after the Houthis struck two Saudi tankers in the Red Sea.
An interim truce with Iran, which was meant to end the war, effectively collapsed two weeks ago when U.S. forces struck targets in southern Iran in response to Iranian disruption of shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.
In recent days, Trump threatened to widen the range of targets to include Iran's energy plants and bridges, send ground forces to seize its oil hub of Kharg Island, and bomb a deep-underground nuclear-linked site known as Pickaxe Mountain.
On Friday, however, Trump said he had not yet made a decision on new major strikes.
