Saudi Arabia says Yemen rebels target its energy facilities
Dubai(AP): Yemen's Houthi rebels unleashed a barrage of drone and missile strikes on Saudi Arabia early on Sunday that targeted a liquified natural gas plant, water desalination plant, oil facility and power station, Saudi state-run media reported.
The attacks did not cause casualties, the Saudi-led military coalition fighting in Yemen said, but damaged civilian vehicles and homes in the area.
The salvo marked the latest escalation in Houthi cross-border attacks on Saudi Arabia as peace talks remain stalled and the conflict that has laid waste to much of Yemen since 2015 rages on.
Yehia Sarie, a spokesman for Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi rebels said the group had launched a wide and large military operation into the depth of Saudi Arabia, without immediately elaborating.
The military coalition said it thwarted an attack on a liquified gas plant at a petrochemicals complex in the Red Sea port of Yanbu run by the Saudi Arabian Oil Co., better known as Aramco. It wasn't immediately clear if the attack had inflicted any damage on the plant.
Other aerial strikes targeted a power station in the country's southwest, a desalination facility in Al-Shaqeeq on the Red Sea coast, an Aramco terminal in the southern border town of Jizan and a gas station in the southern city of Khamis Mushait, the coalition said.
The extent of damage was unclear. The official Saudi Press Agency posted various photos of firetrucks dousing leaping flames with water hoses, as well as wrecked cars and craters in the ground allegedly left by the series of drone and ballistic missile strikes.
The barrage comes after the Saudi-based Gulf Cooperation Council invited Yemen's warring sides for talks in Riyadh aimed at ending the war an offer dismissed out of hand by the Houthis, who demanded that negotiations take place in a neutral country.
Peace talks have floundered since the Houthis have tried to capture oil-rich Marib, one of the last remaining strongholds of the Saudi-backed Yemeni government in the country's north.
The ongoing war has created one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world, with a recent UN report estimating that hundreds of thousands of people have died and millions have been displaced as a result of the conflict.
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Netanyahu says Trump sees scope for deal after military gains in Iran while Tehran denies talks
Tel Aviv/Washington: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that he had spoken with US President Donald Trump on Monday. Netanyahu said that Trump believes recent US-Israeli military operations in Iran could be translated into a negotiated agreement safeguarding Israel’s interests.
In a video statement, Netanyahu said Trump viewed the “tremendous achievements” of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and the US military as an opportunity to realise the objectives of the war through a diplomatic arrangement.
“President Trump believes there is a chance to leverage the tremendous achievements of the IDF and the U.S. military in order to realise the war's objectives in an agreement, an agreement that will safeguard our vital interests,” Netanyahu said, adding, “We will protect our vital interests under any circumstances.”
He stated that military operations were continuing, saying Israeli forces were striking targets in both Iran and Lebanon. Netanyahu reiterated that the ongoing campaign was “crushing the missile programme and the nuclear programme” of Iran and was also “inflicting heavy damage” on Hezbollah.
“Just a few days ago we eliminated two more (Iranian) nuclear scientists. And this is not the end,” he said.
Netanyahu’s remarks came shortly after Trump announced that the United States had held “very good” talks with an unnamed Iranian official. The US President’s diplomatic outreach followed hours before a now-postponed ultimatum he had set for Tehran. The ultimatum issued asked Tehran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz shipping lane or face US military action against its power plants.
Citing an unnamed Israeli official, news outlet Axios has identified the Iranian interlocutor as Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Speaker of Iran’s Parliament and one of the country’s most prominent non-clerical figures.
However, Ghalibaf dismissed the report, stating in a post on X that “no negotiations” were under way.
