DUBAI — President Donald Trump is threatening severe military consequences for Iran and its Houthi allies after Yemeni fighters struck two Saudi oil tankers in the Red Sea, pushing the Middle East conflict into a second critical shipping corridor.
The attacks rattled global energy markets, with Brent crude oil jumping more than 6% and breaking the $100-per-barrel mark for the first time since May — one of the sharpest price surges since the war began.
Two weeks after a temporary ceasefire effectively fell apart, U.S. forces carried out airstrikes on Iran for a 13th straight night, spanning Thursday evening into early Friday morning. In response, Iran launched missiles at neighboring Arab nations that host American military installations.
Iranian state media reported that missiles struck Qeshm Island, located along the Strait of Hormuz, on both Thursday and Friday nights. That waterway has become the focal point of a war now in its fifth month — a conflict that has claimed thousands of lives and raised alarms about a potential global economic slowdown.
State broadcaster IRIB reported that a U.S. missile strike on the Iranian city of Ahvaz killed four people and wounded five others.
After the Houthis announced they had hit the two tankers on Thursday, Trump took to social media with a direct warning. “If they do this again, the U.S. will hold Iran responsible, in that the Houthis are a Surrogate and/or Proxy of Iran, and major military punishment will be inflicted upon Iran and, of course, the Houthis, themselves,” he wrote.
In a separate interview with Axios, Trump indicated he was weighing a return to full-scale military operations against Iran and was close to making a decision. The outlet quoted him as saying, “They haven’t received enough pain yet.”
Trump also posted on social media that any damage done to cargo ships would be covered using frozen Iranian assets held by the United States, though he did not explain the mechanism for doing so.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Arachi fired back on X, calling the idea dangerous. “Seizing another nation’s assets to pay for unrelated future claims is an incendiary precedent,” he wrote, adding that normalizing such confiscation would put everyone’s assets at risk. “Ensuing chaos will not be pretty or peaceful,” he warned.
Reuters sources in Iran and Yemen said Iran had flown Revolutionary Guard commanders, military advisers, and missile and drone equipment into Yemen in the days before the Houthis declared their blockade. The Houthis denied that account.
The Houthis confirmed they carried out missile and drone attacks on two Saudi oil tankers — identified as the Encelia and the Layla. A maritime security source said the Encelia sent a distress signal after being hit by a missile near the Saudi port of Jizan in the Red Sea, just north of Yemen, on Wednesday. Saudi state media reported the strike sparked a fire at the front of the vessel.
Reuters was unable to independently verify the attack on the Layla or other battlefield claims, though Trump referenced both strikes on Saudi tankers.
Shipping insurance costs through the southern Red Sea reportedly doubled for some carriers following the attacks.
The Houthis control northern and western Yemen and say they are enforcing a naval blockade on Saudi Arabia, which had been rerouting millions of barrels of oil daily through a pipeline to the Red Sea in order to bypass Iran’s blockade at the Strait of Hormuz.
A Houthi blockade could close the Bab el-Mandeb strait — known as the “Gate of Tears” — which connects the Red Sea to the Indian Ocean. It is considered the second most vital route for global energy shipments, behind only the Strait of Hormuz.
Since the blockade announcement, several tankers have already altered their routes to avoid the Bab el-Mandeb, instead heading north through the Suez Canal or taking the far longer and costlier route around the African continent to reach customers in Asia.
Ship-tracking data showed that tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz dropped to just one vessel on Thursday — its lowest level since May 7.
Iran meanwhile reported striking U.S. missile systems, weapons depots, and fuel storage facilities in Jordan, as well as American military positions in Kuwait. Jordan’s military said it intercepted all but one of four Iranian missiles and six drones in the past day, with the unintercepted missile landing in an unpopulated area.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards claimed they hit a U.S. electronic warfare unit at Al-Adiri base in Kuwait, saying it caused unspecified casualties. Neither the United States nor Kuwait confirmed any casualties at the base.
Iranian military spokesperson Brigadier General Mohammad Akraminia said Iran would continue retaliating for as long as U.S. strikes targeted its infrastructure and coastal regions, according to Iranian state television.
Since the war began in February, Iran has shown it retains the ability to strike U.S. targets across the region, despite earlier claims by Trump that American forces had dismantled Iran’s military capabilities. Four sources familiar with U.S. intelligence told Reuters that earlier Iranian strikes on CIA targets in the Gulf had triggered an investigation into whether Russia was helping Iran with targeting data or drone technology.
Back in Washington, rising oil prices are fueling inflation concerns and putting pressure on Trump’s Republican allies ahead of November’s congressional elections. The Republican-led House of Representatives passed legislation Thursday directing Trump to halt military operations against Iran — the latest rebuke from a Congress that holds the exclusive constitutional authority to formally declare war. However, repeated similar measures in recent months have not stopped the conflict. The Senate voted hours later to block a separate but similar resolution.
