Yemen’s Houthi militants have escalated attacks on Saudi Arabia’s energy facilities in a campaign that is destabilising the world’s largest oil exporter and strengthening the hand of Iran.
The rebel group claimed responsibility for drone and missile attacks on the giant Saudi Aramco Jazan oil facility on Sunday, as well as what a Houthi spokesperson called a “widespread destruction operation” against Saudi forces in the strategic Red Sea port of Al-Makha that reportedly killed at least seven people.
The attacks come after strikes on shipping in the Bab al-Mandab Strait off the Yemeni coast in the past week, threatening another critical maritime trade route that has served as an alternative to the disrupted Strait of Hormuz.
Saudi Arabia’s energy ministry acknowledged that a fire had broken out at the Jazan refinery on Sunday but claimed that it was quickly extinguished with no injuries reported, while a Houthi spokesperson claimed the strike was in response to Saudi drones “violating Yemeni airspace” and what the rebels characterise as a “blockade” of land sea and air routes into the country.
The Jazan facility had suffered damage in a previous attack, also claimed by the Houthis at the end of July, threatening pipelines running across Saudi Arabia and oil export terminals on the Red Sea coast that have provided overland alternatives to Hormuz.
Smoke rises from Saudi Aramco’s oil refinery in Jazan after Houthi missile and drone strikes launched from Yemen in late July. (Photo by Gallo Images/Orbital Horizon/Copernicus Sentinel Data 2026)The latest Houthi attacks come days after Saudi Arabia signed a Nato style mutual defence pact with Turkey and Pakistan as the Kingdom seeks to bolster its defences and promote “peace, security, and stability” in the face of regional turmoil unleased by the US and Israeli war with Iran.
The Saudi leadership had broadly maintained a truce with the Houthis following a war that began in 2014 and quietened after a UN backed ceasefire in 2022.
The relative calm broke down when Saudi Arabian forces attacked the main airport in Sanaa as Houthi leaders were flying back to Yemen from the funeral of Iran’s former Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei killed in the first strike of the war in February.
Since the American led war with Iran started in the spring, Saudi strategy to contain the conflict in Yemen has come under pressure as analysts point to increased coordination between the Houthis the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corp (IRGC) and Iraqi militias seeking to block access to Saudi Arabian ports, cause economic damage and force the Saudis to recognise Houthi control of the East of Yemen including the capital Sanaa.
The bigger picture for the Houthis may be to support their Iranian allies by provoking the Saudis to such an extent that they demand Donald Trump take action and end the conflict in the region, experts believe.
“This is this is not something that Saudi Arabia wants at all,” explained Christopher Phillips professor of international relations at Queen Mary University of London.
After intervening in 2015 the Saudis carried out a massive air campaign, supported by the US and UK, leading to a humanitarian disaster in Yemen but failing to dislodge the Houthi rebels who have ended up in de facto control of much of the country.
And now the Iranians are seeking to poke the Saudi sore spot.
“It seems that Iran instigated this and have tried to turn the screws on Saudi Arabia. Whether they’re trying to provoke them into a larger conflict isn’t clear, but what they are trying to do is put pressure on the Saudis with the logic that Saudi Arabia will then put pressure on the US to come to an agreement with Iran on the Straits of Hormuz or closer to Iran’s terms,” Phillips told The i Paper.
Vessels transit the Bab el-Mandeb Strait off the coast of southern Yemen where Houthi fighters are targeting Saudi linked ships and seeking to block maritime traffic to Saudi ports. iPhoto by Khaled ZIAD / AFP via Getty Images)Saudi priorities had been to stop Iran from rebuilding Houthi military capacity and to stop the conflict from spreading to the Red Sea, according to Neil Quilliam associate fellow at think tank Chatham House’s Middle East and North Africa programme, “but obviously that hasn’t worked.”
And while Iran might have the big picture in mind, the Houthis’ also have their own agenda to push back the Saudis from interfering in Yemen’s politics.
“The Houthis want to use the wider regional war and the attacks on Saudi linked vessels and energy assets to force Saudi Arabia to lift the blockade of the key port of Hodeida,” Quilliam told The i Paper.
“The strategy is to use the war to advance its interests by increasing the flow of arms through Hodeida, so that it can further consolidate its territorial grip and challenge the groups that oppose it in Yemen,” he added.
Phillips said the Houthis will have their own agenda. “The Houthis are a tool in Iran’s arsenal but they’re not simply an unconditional ally,” he said. “Unless you’re at a point where the Iranian regime looked close to falling, the Houthis wouldn’t go into a conflict against their will.”
Saudi Arabia is in a strategic bind, the analyst added, of seeking a return a stability without showing weakness to their enemies.
“We’ve seen in the past that Saudi Arabia have been able to persuade Donald Trump to act in a certain way with regard to Iran, but if they immediately ring up Trump and say, ‘okay, Donald, the Houthis are bombing us, now give Iran what they want’, then Iran will just do it every time they need to negotiate,” said Phillips.
“Privately, one must assume that they are having conversations with the White House, effectively saying, ‘we expect you as our ally to sort this out. Fundamentally, Donald, this is your war.”
Riyadh’s state oil firm Aramco Saudi Arabia has sought to play down the effects of the attacks on an industry that generates around $20bn (£14.9bn) a month in export receipts. But Philips warned the worst may be yet to come.
“The Houthis were sending a message that we can hit you. The more significant issue is the closing of the Bab al-Mandab Strait. That is the thing that’s really going to hit, not so much Saudi’s energy supplies, but its ability to export oil and gas and that is going to hit Saudi’s income pretty quickly.”
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