Saudi Arabia tells Trump now is the time for military action

Saudi Arabia tells Trump now is the time for military action as Iran-backed Houthis advance

Efrat Lachter

Saudi Arabia is urging Washington to take direct military action against Iran-backed Houthis, Fox News Digital learned after the terrorist group seized key positions along Yemen’s Bab al-Mandab Strait on Friday.

The dramatic strengthening of Houthi's positioning along the coastline of Yemen is in one of the world's most important shipping choke points — a narrow passage that links the Red Sea with the Gulf of Aden, which has been used as a bypass as the Iran war continues to severely disrupt shipping, especially of oil, through the Strait of Hormuz.

The rapid advance on Friday triggered urgent discussions at the highest levels in Riyadh and Washington, and a source familiar with the matter tells Fox News Digital that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman urged President Donald Trump to take military action against the Houthis.

The Houthis reached the strategic island of Mayyun, also known as Perim, after Yemeni government forces withdrew and also took the mainland coastal town of Dhubab, four Yemeni government sources told Reuters on Friday.

Fox News Digital independently confirmed key elements of an Axios report with a source familiar with the matter, who said the crown prince spoke with Trump a few times over the past 24 hours about the escalating situation in Yemen.

The U.S. does not want to take direct military action for now, but Trump told bin Salman that Washington would assist Saudi Arabia with intelligence and targeting support, according to the source.

The source also confirmed that U.S. Central Command commander Adm. Brad Cooper traveled to Saudi Arabia for coordination talks.

The White House did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment on the calls or whether additional U.S. military action is under consideration.

A Saudi official told Fox News Digital on background that the kingdom "will continue to support the internationally recognized government in Yemen in its effort to promote peace, unity and stability across the country and is working closely with its partners, including the United States, to ensure freedom of navigation in the Arabian Gulf and Red Sea."

"The Kingdom will also take every necessary measure to ensure that its own citizens and residents are safe and its borders are secure," the official added.

The convergence raises the prospect of simultaneous pressure on two of the world’s most consequential maritime arteries: Iran disrupting traffic through Hormuz while its Houthi allies strengthen their position around Bab al-Mandab.

Behnam Ben Taleblu, senior director of the Iran program at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told Fox News Digital that the shift reflects Tehran’s effort to recover leverage as pressure around Hormuz changes.

"Trump’s success in pushing back on Iran’s maritime threat in the Strait of Hormuz and Persian Gulf has made the regime lose the maritime leverage it had, and now it is looking to double down on the Houthis who have proven to be able to impact Red Sea shipping and the Bab al-Mandab Strait in the past," Ben Taleblu said.

"As Tehran loses leverage in the Strait of Hormuz, it is trying to wield a knife and a handshake at once: diplomacy with Arab states and a knife in the back via the Houthi offensive," he added.

The latest advance follows the Houthis’ capture Thursday of the strategic Red Sea port of Mocha, which was previously held by forces aligned with Yemen’s internationally recognized government.

Former U.S. special envoy for Yemen Timothy Lenderking said Friday that the Houthis had spent the years since the 2022 U.N.-brokered truce rebuilding their military strength and are now exploiting the broader Iran conflict to increase pressure on Saudi Arabia.

Speaking during an on-the-record Middle East Institute virtual briefing, Lenderking said the April 2022 truce largely put Yemen’s civil war on pause but also "did allow the Houthis to regroup, retrain, refit, restock."

Lenderking traced the latest round of escalation in part to Iranian Mahan Air flights into Sanaa earlier this summer, which he said brought personnel and equipment intended to support the Houthi war effort, adding that the personnel were from Iran and were "probably IRGC members."

New risk for US consumers as Iran-backed attacks threaten a second major oil chokepoint

Iran-backed Houthi rebels struck Saudi Arabia with dozens of ballistic missiles and drones Tuesday, hitting multiple energy targets, including the facilities of the world's largest oil company.

The attacks on Aramco, the state-owned national oil company of Saudi Arabia that produces 10 million barrels of oil per day, threaten to tighten pressure on a second critical oil route as the Middle East war continues to restrict shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.

Aramco notably supplies roughly 10% of the world's total oil demand. And attacks on its facilities raise the risk of higher oil, shipping and transportation costs that could hit U.S. consumers in coming months — just in time for the 2026 midterm elections.

The attacks hit the southern Saudi Arabian cities of Jazan, Najran, Abha and Khamis Mushait, wounding 73 people and sparking fires at energy facilities and utilities that temporarily forced some operations to stop, according to Saudi officials. The Jazan site includes a refinery capable of processing roughly 400,000 barrels of crude per day, according to the Associated Press.

Tuesday's strikes land at a particularly vulnerable moment for global energy markets. With oil flows through the Strait of Hormuz sharply reduced, Saudi Arabia has redirected more crude toward the Red Sea — increasing the importance of the Bab el-Mandeb, where the Houthis have already threatened and attacked Saudi-linked shipping.

The Energy Information Administration estimates that just 4.9 million barrels of oil and petroleum liquids moved through Hormuz per day in the second quarter of 2026, down from 21.6 million barrels per day before the conflict. Before the conflict 20% of the world's oil moved through the consequential waterway.

Traffic through the Bab el-Mandeb, meanwhile, averaged 8.1 million barrels per day during the quarter as Saudi Arabia redirected more crude to bypass Hormuz amid ongoing conflict.

That creates a potentially costly vulnerability: renewed Houthi attacks on Saudi energy infrastructure or commercial vessels could put pressure on two crucial oil routes at once, raising the risk of higher crude, shipping and transportation costs that could eventually reach U.S. consumers.

Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree claimed responsibility for Tuesday’s strikes, saying the group had used "dozens of ballistic missiles and drones" against Aramco facilities, the Jazan industrial zone and a Saudi air base, according to Xinhua.