Houthis strike Saudi Ras Tanura refinery as Iran threatens harsher retaliation

Yemen’s Ansar Allah movement announced on Tuesday that it had launched a ballistic missile at the Ras Tanura oil refinery in Saudi Arabia. Yahya Saree, the group’s military spokesperson, stated that the projectile ignited a fire at the facility located on the Gulf coast. Saudi authorities have not yet confirmed the impact, though Bloomberg News reported that a fire near the terminal was contained earlier in the day. Ras Tanura is the kingdom’s largest refinery and serves as a primary exit point for oil exports, a route the Houthis have targeted alongside the Red Sea port of Yanbu.

The attack occurs as Yemeni forces backed by Saudi Arabia intensify their own offensive. Colonel Majed al-Nuzaili, a spokesperson for these forces, said they conducted 1,276 operations against Houthi positions in the past 24 hours. He claimed the campaign neutralized approximately 382 Houthi commanders and fighters, although he did not distinguish between killed and wounded. Al-Nuzaili further reported that the forces destroyed or damaged 140 military vehicles and heavy weapons, along with several arms depots and command centers across multiple fronts.

Tensions in the region have escalated since July, when Riyadh struck Sanaa’s international airport, breaking a ceasefire. The US Embassy in Riyadh has ordered non-emergency government employees and their families to leave the country due to safety risks. The order, first issued on October 23, warned of potential attacks on airports, airspace closures, and travel disruptions.

In Iran, Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council Mohsen Rezaei met with Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei on Tuesday. This was a rare public appearance for Khamenei, who has not been seen in public since succeeding his father, Ali Khamenei, who was assassinated on February 28. Rezaei’s meeting followed talks on Monday with officials from the Mecca Alliance, including Saudi Defence Minister Prince Khalid bin Salman, Pakistan’s army chief Asim Munir, and Turkey’s intelligence chief Ibrahim Kalin.

Rezaei wrote on X that Washington’s inability to provide security guarantees had become evident. He argued that security in West Asia must originate from within the region and that any foreign intervention must be prevented. Separately, Abdollah Haji Sadeghi, the supreme leader’s representative to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, warned that further US attacks would draw a harsher and more devastating response. Sadeghi stated that Tehran knows the enemy’s vulnerabilities and accused the US of using psychological warfare to stoke divisions after failing militarily.

Omani Foreign Minister Badr al-Busaidi spoke in Cambridge during a diplomatic visit to the UK. He called on Gulf states to form a non-aggression pact with Iran and end reliance on a US security umbrella. Al-Busaidi described the current regional system as unstable, constructed on the false perception of a fundamental antagonism between Iran and the Arab states of the Gulf. He noted that Arabs and Persians have lived in peace around the Gulf for centuries.

US President Donald Trump defended the war at a campaign rally in Corinth, Mississippi, on Monday. Facing poor opinion polls ahead of elections that could cost Republicans control of both houses of Congress, Trump repeated the claim that Iran started the war with the United States. He said he had expected oil prices to rise much higher and maintained that the US had no choice but to act. Trump described a previous ceasefire as a waste of time and stated that Iran had developed missiles capable of reaching Europe and potentially targeting US cities.