Middle East Tensions Rise With Houthis-Israel Standoff
Tensions in the Middle East ratcheted up again this weekend with Israel and the Iran-aligned Houthi movement in Yemen trading strikes and attempts at strikes.
In the early morning trade in Europe, both major oil benchmarks, WTI Crude and Brent Crude, were trading slightly higher.
Over the weekend, the crisis in the Middle East escalated once more after the Israeli military deployed fighter jets to strike Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen, for the first time since the Israel–Hamas war erupted last October.
Houthi official Mohammed Abdulsalam posted on social media that a “brutal Israel aggression against Yemen” had just occurred. He noted that the airstrikes hit “fuel storage facilities and a power plant” in the Yemeni port of Hodeida “to pressure Yemen to stop supporting” Palestinians in the Gaza war.
On Saturday, Israeli fighter jets hit Houthi military targets near Yemen’s port of Hodeidah on the Red Sea, after the Houthis launched a drone on Tel Aviv on Friday.
The Iranian-made long-range drone launched from Yemen hit downtown Tel Aviv on Friday, killing one civilian and wounding four others, in an attack for which the Houthis claimed responsibility.
Iran and Hezbollah condemned the Israeli attack on Hodeidah as tensions in the Middle East are once again the focus of geopolitics observers.
The Houthis have vowed to continue attacking Israel in response.
Houthi spokesman Mohammed Abdulsalam told Qatar’s Al Jazeera there would be “no red lines” in retaliation.
“All sensitive institutions at all levels will be targets for us,” the spokesman added.
On Sunday, Israel said its military had intercepted a missile fired from Yemen fired earlier on Sunday. The Israeli military said that the surface-to-surface missile was intercepted before reaching Israeli territory.
The latest escalation in the Middle East and the major oil shipping routes in the region comes as The Wall Street Journal reports that U.S. intelligence agencies had issued a warning that Russia might seek to arm the Houthis with advanced anti-ship missiles, in retaliation for the U.S. Administration’s support for Ukrainian strikes inside Russia with U.S. weapons.
Source » oilprice.com
