HERE IS THE LATEST-
- The price of Brent crude, the international benchmark for oil, topped $100 per barrel Wednesday, its highest level since late May, as the U.S. and Iran’s standoff over the Strait of Hormuz flared up again with new attacks. According to a Goldman Sachs analysis, the price could rise above $120 a barrel.
- President Trump said he thinks the war will come to an end “right after the election” because Iran is “desperate” to affect the midterms. He said Iran would like a “weak group of people in there,” apparently referring to Democrats in Congress.
- Jordan said Wednesday that its military intercepted 18 Iranian missiles, with no casualties reported. Iran’s state media said Tehran targeted U.S. assets across the region in retaliation for American attacks on Iranian oil tankers.
Iran-backed Houthis launch 2nd day of attacks on Saudi Arabia
Yemen’s Houthi militant group launched missiles and drones at three cities in southwestern Saudi Arabia on Wednesday, according to a spokesperson for a Saudi-led anti-Houthi coalition.
It marks the second day of apparent strikes by the Houthis, which are backed by Iran. On Tuesday, Saudi authorities said 73 people were injured and several oil facilities were temporarily shut down due to Houthi attacks. The Houthis said Saudi Arabia responded with more than 30 strikes on Yemen earlier Wednesday.
Asked about the Houthis, Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters earlier Wednesday the U.S. is “watching those events very closely.” He blamed Iran for the uptick in hostilities, saying “the Houthis in many ways are agents and proxies of the Iranians.”
“I think behind some of this is clearly the Iranian hand,” Rubio said.
Esmaeil Baqaei, a spokesperson for Iran’s Foreign Ministry, denied Rubio’s allegations in a social media post, calling the Houthis “an independent Yemeni actor that makes its own decisions; it takes orders from no one and acts as nobody’s proxy.”
Germany condemns Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia
Germany has condemned the Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia and the Saudi-backed Yemeni government forces after a flare-up in fighting between the two sides in recent days.
A wave of Houthi attacks on Tuesday pummeled Saudi oil sites and wounded dozens of people. On Wednesday, the Houthis reported more than 40 Saudi retaliatory strikes.
In a statement on X, Germany’s Foreign Office said the country “strongly condemns the Houthi attacks against infrastructure in Saudi Arabia and on Yemeni government forces.”
It added that the Houthis must cease attacks on government-held areas and Saudi Arabia and return to the 2022 peace plan, a fragile truce that was broken this year as the Iran war widened.
Rubio declines to name the countries that are helping Iran
Asked by reporters whether the U.S. knows which countries are aiding Iran in the ongoing war, Secretary of State Marco Rubio declined to name any. But he said he doesn’t believe that foreign assistance is helping Tehran in any meaningful way.
“We don’t believe anybody is giving Iran anything that’s changing the dynamics or the parameters of what we’re seeing,” Rubio said while traveling in Ecuador. “At the end of the day, they continue to fire on naval ships and when they fire at our naval ships, they pay a price in tankers.”
He added, “In the meantime, we’re going to continue to strangle them economically.”
