Saudi Arabia shuts East-West pipeline after drone attack, threatening key Hormuz oil bypass - The Indian Express

Saudi Arabia has shut down a major oil pipeline after a drone attack, while Yemen’s Houthi rebels have seized a strategically vital island guarding the entrance to the Red Sea  developments that mark a dangerous new front in the wider war with Iran.

The kingdom’s East-West pipeline, built in the 1980s, was hit by multiple drones on Thursday. Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Energy confirmed the line was shut down “as a precautionary measure.”

According to CNN, US officials say the strike damaged pump stations along the route, and satellite images appear to show extensive fire damage at one pumping station, with a separate image showing black smoke rising from another site.

Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Ministry  later released a statement condemning “the attack on the East-West Pipeline in the Riyadh and Madinah regions by several drones coming from Iraq, which resulted in injuries and some damage that is currently being addressed.”

“The Kingdom clarifies that, based on a request from the Iraqi Prime Minister to give the brotherly Iraqi government the opportunity to take the necessary measures to prevent attacks launched from Iraqi territory against the Kingdom and neighboring countries, the Kingdom has chosen not to respond at this stage, in support of the Iraqi government’s efforts,” the statement said.  Iraq’s government condemned the assault and ordered an investigation.

Also read | Saudi’s MBS called Trump twice for strikes on Houthis. Why did president say no?

This is not the first such incident Saudi Arabia and the United States bombed Iran-backed militias inside Iraq back in July following earlier drone strikes on Saudi oil facilities  attacks regional officials say the Houthis helped plan.

With the Strait of Hormuz effectively closed off by Iranian strikes on shipping, the East-West pipeline has become Saudi Arabia’s lifeline for getting crude to international markets. Exports through the pipeline to the Red Sea port of Yanbu had more than doubled to over five million barrels a day by early June.

CNN reports that experts believe repairing the pump stations should be more straightforward than fixing damage to the pipeline itself, though the full extent of the harm remains unclear. Separately, Saudi Arabia has told OPEC that its crude output plunged last month to its lowest level since 1990.

Away from the pipeline, Houthi fighters have taken Mayun  also known as Perim a small volcanic island sitting inside the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, one of the busiest shipping corridors on earth. The seizure was confirmed to the AP by a senior official in Yemen’s internationally recognised government and separately by a Houthi source, both speaking anonymously.

It follows the Houthi capture of the port city of Mokha on Thursday, roughly 80 kilometres from the strait. A senior Yemeni military official told the AP he was stunned Saudi forces made no attempt to stop it, suggesting Riyadh may not have received US backing for a larger air campaign. He also pointed to poor coordination between Yemen’s army and allied militias as handing the Houthis “a priceless opportunity.”

Also read | Saudi’s MBS called Trump twice for strikes on Houthis. Why did president say no?

In a statement, Houthi armed forces claimed further gains along the coast and warned of “escalation for escalation” against Saudi Arabia, while insisting shipping remained safe for everyone except Saudi vessels.

Crude prices have climbed back above $100 a barrel this week, a level analysts say hands Tehran extra leverage in any future negotiations. Shipping traffic through Bab el-Mandeb had already fallen by roughly 60% since Houthi attacks began in late 2023, and renewed threats are said to have curbed a recent recovery in traffic.

With the Red Sea route now under greater threat, Saudi Arabia has been forced to divert oil northward via the Suez Canal or an overland pipeline through Egypt a considerably longer journey for customers in Asia. The Houthis have signalled they may target this route too, having struck a Saudi vessel in the northern Red Sea in late August.

Tehran has publicly backed its Houthi allies, with Iran’s Foreign Ministry urging an end to Saudi Arabia’s blockade of Houthi-held territory and calling for renewed Saudi-Houthi negotiations. A spokesperson for Iran’s Revolutionary Guard went further this week, saying any US settlement talks must now include Yemen  the first time Tehran has made that link explicit.

Saudi Arabia insists it remains open to negotiation but retains the right to defend itself. The foreign ministers of both countries reportedly discussed efforts to restore stability on Thursday.

Meanwhile, the surge in fighting threatens to unravel a fragile truce that has largely held since 2022 in a civil war that has already killed 150,000 people and pushed millions to the brink of famine. The UN’s migration agency says more than 46,000 people have fled the fighting in the past week alone, with displacement numbers more than doubling and expected to rise further. Aid workers say fleeing residents, including medical staff, have left with only what they could carry, forcing groups like Doctors Without Borders to scramble to keep hospitals such as Mokha’s running.