Houthi's capture Red Sea coast as key Saudi oil pipeline shut after Iraqi militia attack

Iranian state media on Saturday said explosions were heard off the coast of an island located in the Strait of Hormuz.

"A few minutes ago, the sound of two explosions was heard on Qeshm Island, coming from the direction of the sea," the official IRNA news agency said.

In recent weeks, Iran has been targeting oil tankers passing through the strategic waterway as well as US bases in the Gulf countries in retaliation for the attacks carried out by the US military on Iranian targets.

The United States has also targeted ships trying to break its own counterblockade of Iranian ports.

The US military said Saturday that it has pushed back 100 commercial vessels in the past 60 days under its blockade of Iranian ports.

"ZERO ships have passed through the blockade without US forces allowing. American service members remain laser focused on this mission," US Central Command said on X.

Iran blocked the strategic Strait of Hormuz after the US and Israel launched attacks on Tehran in late February.

In response, the United States has sought to prevent ships from traveling to and from Iranian ports to deprive Tehran of revenue.

A chilling new documentary about Israel's AI-assisted killing of civilians in Gaza by two Israeli directors won a special jury prize at the Venice Film Festival on Saturday.

"NAZA", by Oscar-winning Israeli directors Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor, had been tipped by some critics for the top Golden Lion prize for best film after a record-breaking 25-minute ovation at its premiere on Thursday.

Yemen's Riyadh-backed government forces said on Saturday that they had struck Houthi fighters in the strategic Red Sea city of Mocha.

Following a week-long offensive, the Houthis on Friday captured Yemen's Red Sea coast, cementing their hold on the Bab al-Mandab Strait, a vital artery for Saudi Arabian oil exports as the Strait of Hormuz remains closed amid the US-Iran war.

They had seized Mocha the day before after heavy fighting.

"The armed forces destroyed vehicles and weapons and killed members of the Houthi terrorist militia backed by the Iranian regime" near Mocha's port, the government news agency Saba reported on Saturday.

The spokesman for the Yemeni government forces, Majed Abdullah al-Nazili, said they had also struck Houthi vehicles and fighters on the Mocha-Dhubab road, just outside the city, according to Saba.

Nazili said on Friday that government forces had begun shelling areas in Mocha, and called on citizens not to use the Taiz-Mocha and Mocha-Dhubab roads.

Artificial intelligence giant Anthropic released a report on Thursday detailing misuse of its Claude LLM by a variety of actors, both state and non-state, worldwide, from cyber and influence operations to biological misuse and weapons development.

Spanning eight months, Anthropic said the report includes cases that "aren't typical misuse, but rather examples of the most notable and novel threat activity we’ve identified to date".

The New Arab takes a look at the some key misuses identified in the report relating to the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.

Yemen

One of the most significant misuses identified by Anthropic is from "a cell of threat actors based in northern Yemen running three weapons development programs".

Three members of Iran's security forces were killed in clashes with gunmen on Saturday, state media reported, in a region plagued by violence involving armed groups including drug traffickers and separatists.

State television initially said four gunmen were also killed during the operation against "terrorists" in Iran's southeast.

But Iran's Revolutionary Guards, the ideological arm of the military, later updated the toll to five gunmen dead, in a statement carried by state TV.

State television, which did not specify if the gunmen were affiliated with any organisation, said they were planning a "terrorist operation" in the city of Saravan, which lies more than 1,300 kilometres (800 miles) from the capital Tehran.

Iranian forces also seized "weapons, ammunition and explosives", the statement added.

At least 76,000 people have been displaced in Yemen since July, with the number quadrupling in the past week as fighting flared between government forces and Iran-backed Houthi rebels, the United Nations said Saturday.

"The International Organization for Migration (IOM) is warning of a rapidly worsening displacement crisis in Yemen unfolding by the hour," the UN agency said in a statement, pointing out that "at least 76,000 people have fled their homes since July... four times last week's total, as fighting intensifies".

A meeting between Iran and Gulf states planned for Monday in Oman will be a chance to discuss issues including the Strait of Hormuz, but is not expected to yield a signed agreement over the blockaded waterway, a senior Iranian official said on Saturday.

Iran has been negotiating for months with Oman, which controls the opposite bank of the strait, over a deal that would govern transport through it. Oman has long said its negotiations are supported by other Arab countries in the Gulf.

Tehran announced on Friday that it was planning to attend a meeting with Gulf countries in Oman on Monday. Oman has not officially announced the meeting and other regional states have so far remained silent. Bahrain said on Saturday it would not attend meetings with Iran.

The Iranian official, who discussed the plans on condition of anonymity, said Monday's meeting was called at Oman's initiative, and would provide a forum to discuss other regional issues as well as Hormuz.

According to the Iranian official, Iran still wants an agreement that would allow it to collect fees from ships that use the strait, which Oman rejects.

Iraqi security forces have found drone launchers near the border with Iran, security sources told AFP on Saturday, after an attack on a Saudi pipeline that Riyadh and Baghdad said was launched from Iraq.

A security official said that "security forces found drone launchers near the Iraq-Iran border in the al-Tib" remote region in the southern Missan province. A second security official gave the same account.

US President Donald Trump said Saturday that Yemen's Iran-allied Houthi fighters, who have taken control of a vital shipping corridor linking Europe and Asia, have asked Washington not to intervene.

"The Houthis called us and they don't want to fight with us," Trump told reporters on a visit to Dublin, Ireland. "They don't want us to go after them," he added.

Iraqi Prime Minister Ali Faleh al-Zaidi has agreed to an Iranian request for a joint investigation into the discovery of drone launch platforms near the Iraqi-Iranian border, the prime minister's office said on Saturday.

The investigation will examine the circumstances surrounding the discovery of the platforms near the border area, the statement said, after it was used to launch attacks on the Saudi Arabia East-West pipeline.

Bahrain said on Saturday it would not take part in a proposed meeting in Oman between Iran and Gulf states to discuss the Strait of Hormuz, which Tehran has blockaded throughout the Middle East war.

Pointing to attacks on infrastructure across the Gulf, the ministry said that security and stability in the region "cannot be preserved through a policy of appeasement" and called for Hormuz to be open without "discrimination, fees or permits".

US President Donald Trump said Iran was probably responsible for an aerial attack on Saudi Arabia ​that shut down its East-West pipeline.

"I think they are, probably they are," Trump told reporters in Dublin when asked if Iran was responsible for the attack on the vital oil conduit.

Members of the 11-nation BRICS group including China, Russia, Iran and India called for calm in the Middle East, in a joint statement issued Saturday at a summit meeting.

"We express deep concern over the continued escalation of tensions in Middle East/West Asia and, recalling our respective national positions, call for exercising maximum restraint, as well as avoiding actions that could further aggravate the situation," the statement issued in the Indian capital New Delhi read.

President Donald Trump repeated on Saturday that he believed the war with Iran will end after US midterm elections in ‌November and that oil prices will tumble once it does.

"I think very soon. I think it'll be probably right after the mid-terms. They're trying to hold out as long as they can to complicate the election. But I think people are wise to it," Trump told reporters in Dublin.

"When that happens, oil prices will come tumbling down."

Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Saturday that the Middle East does not need the United States to be a "regional policeman", with the two countries at war and vying for control of the Strait of Hormuz.

"We do not need a regional policeman," he said on the sidelines of a BRICS summit in India during a meeting with Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim.

"The territorial integrity and security of the region can only be guaranteed by its main players and the countries that comprise it," he added, according to the Iranian presidency.

"Despite all the injustices suffered by our people, we neither desire war nor its continuation. Peace remains our priority," Pezeshkian added.

US officials believe that Iran obtained high resolution satellite images from Chinese sources before carrying out an attack on Jordan's Muwaffaq Salti airbase in July, killing three American soldiers, The Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday.

The unnamed officials described the intelligence as the "clearest" evidence of Chinese support for Tehran during the US-Israeli war launched in late February.

The officials declined to  identify which Chinese entity had provided the satellite images, and stopped short of accusing Beijing of direct involvement. Sources indicated that senior US officials raised the issue with their Chinese counterparts, who dismissed the concerns and denied the involvement of Chinese firms.

The US believes that Iran acquired images of both before and after the attack, according to the report.

The report also quoted informed sources as saying that Washington is concerned about the possibility of Beijing assisting Iran in tracking US naval vessels. Iran has in recent days launched ballistic missiles toward a US aircraft carrier and other warships in the region. US Central Command (CENTCOM) said that the attacks missed their target, however sources who spoke to the WSJ said the strikes came "close".

US President Donald Trump said on Saturday that everything would "work out just fine" when asked whether he could help move traffic through the Strait of Hormuz in light of fresh concerns about Saudi Arabia.

"Everything will work out just fine," Trump said, speaking in Dublin after meeting Irish President Catherine Connolly.

Yemen's Houthi movement has taken control of the strategic Bab al-Mandab Strait after seizing Mayyun Island and government forces withdrew from Perim Island, following a rapid collapse of positions held by forces aligned with the internationally recognised government.

The developments came a day after the Houthis took control of the Red Sea city of Mokha, following about a week of heavy fighting.

The speed of the reversal has raised questions over the state of government forces on Yemen's western coast. Until shortly before the withdrawals, reports from the area had pointed to government advances. Their lines then collapsed within hours.

A Houthi official told The New Arab on Friday that the group had taken control of Mayyun Island and completed its control of Bab al-Mandab.

The US has asked tankers travelling through the Strait of Hormuz to sail only at specific times to guarantee military protection after Iran stepped up attacks on ships travelling at night, the Financial Times reported on Saturday.

Washington has been offering air-based defence since May to ships wanting to sail via a route hugging the Omani coast on the strait's southern side.

That period during which ships would be protected was cut down to two specific time slots daily around the start of September, the FT reported, citing emails sent by the US naval co-ordination centre to maritime advisers.

Valiollah Hayati, the deputy governor of Iran’s southwestern Khuzestan province, said Iraqi officials had announced the closure of the Shalamcheh and Chazabeh crossings.

Hayati urged traders, drivers and travellers not to approach the crossings until further notice. He said relevant authorities would release additional information.

Shalamcheh and Chazabeh are among the main official border crossings between Iran and Iraq.

The closure comes after authorities determined that attacks targeting Saudi Arabia were launched from a site in the country.

Tehran-backed Iraqi militias have launched attacks on US-linked targets both inside and outside of Iraq since the US and Israel attacked Iran on 28 February, and have coordinated with Yemen’s Houthi rebels to attack Saudi Arabia.

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun visited the country's south on Saturday, in a surprise trip to a city close to a strategic Hezbollah position recently captured and blown up by Israel.

Official Lebanese media said he arrived in the city of Nabatieh unannounced and accompanied by security officials.

His visit comes a day after a senior US diplomatic official said a new round of US-brokered talks between Israel and Lebanon, initially scheduled for next week, had been pushed back to October.

Aoun expressed solidarity with locals in Nabatieh who greeted him on Saturday, according to footage broadcast by Lebanese media.

He praised staff at Nabatieh Governmental Hospital, saying they were risking their lives to provide medical services in the area, which most people have fled.