Iran War Updates: Battle for control of Red Sea, attacks on energy infrastructure temper news of rising oil flow

A tanker turned back after being threatened by Iranian forces in the Strait of Hormuz on Monday, according to the U.K. navy's Maritime Trade Operations center (UKMTO).

"A tanker transiting the Strait of Hormuz inbound was hailed by the [Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps] and instructed to turn back or the vessel would be targeted," UKMTO said, adding that the "master of the tanker has confirmed that they have complied with the instruction." 

The ship was entering the strait near Oman's coastline, the agency added, using a route touted repeatedly by the U.S. government as safe and open.

On Sunday, UKMTO said it received a report of a possible attack on another tanker in the region's other vital shipping chokepoint, the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, which is the southern gateway to the Red Sea.

Multiple explosions detonated close to a tanker south of Al-Mukha, Yemen, in the Bab el-Mandeb, the monitor said, adding that the crew were reported safe.

Hormuz, through which about one fifth of the world's oil and gas transited before the war, remains a key sticking point in negotiations between Iran and the U.S. to end their conflict.

While attacks on ships blamed on Iran have continued, the U.S. has not announced strikes against the Islamic Republic since Sept. 1.

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Global oil stockpiles are "scarily thin" owing to the U.S.-Iran war, Saudi Aramco chief executive Amin Nasser said Monday, days after G7 nations agreed to release more of their inventories to ease supply concerns.

"The system is already straining," Nasser told the Energy Intelligence Forum in London. "And with precious little else the world can turn to, the supply resilience cushion is scarily thin."

His remarks came hours after the news that oil flows from the Middle East surpassed pre-war levels last week. That welcome news for markets has been tempered, however, by furious fighting between Saudi-backed forces and Iran's Houthi rebel allies in Yemen over control of the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, another key energy chokepoint and the southern gateway to the Red Sea.

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Saudi Arabia's East-West Crude Oil Pipeline was struck again Sunday, a source working in the kingdom's energy sector told French news agency AFP on Monday, adding that the flow of oil through the pipeline had stopped.

"The East-West pipeline was attacked again yesterday," the source told AFP. "A pumping station east of Riyadh in Khurais. It wasn't targeted before. There was big damage and the pipeline stopped again."

The Reuters news agency reported Monday, however, that oil was still flowing through the pipeline, also citing an unnamed source. Bloomberg also reported that oil was still flowing, citing people familiar with the matter.

News of the strike came a day after the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen said they had targeted sites in Saudi Arabia belonging to state oil giant Aramco, including infrastructure in Khurais.

The East-West pipeline has been targeted multiple times since war erupted across the Middle East, following the U.S. and Israel launching joint strikes on Iran at the end of February.

Last month, Saudi Arabia, the world's top oil exporter, shut the East-West pipeline, which runs about 700 miles between its main oil fields in the east and the Yanbu terminal on the Red Sea.

The pipeline was shut down from Sept. 11 to 22, according to commodity-tracking platform Kpler.

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The Yemeni military announced a broad set of strikes against Houthi targets on Monday after the government declared a new campaign to retake all territory from the rebels, even as the Iran-backed group made fresh gains on the ground.

The declared offensive sets a lofty goal for the beleaguered Saudi-backed government a month after it lost swathes of the country's Red Sea coastline, including key territory around the Bab el-Mandeb Strait — a key choke point for international shipping.

Hours after the Yemeni government's announcement, Yemen's military spokesman said its forces launched over 1,000 "strikes against artillery and rocket launcher positions, defensive fortifications, approach and reinforcement routes, supply lines and logistics assets, combat reinforcements" belonging to the Houthis.

He later said the military had taken back control of the Bab el-Mandeb Strait. Houthi-aligned media earlier denied government forces had retaken territory in the area, the Reuters news agency reported.

The government strikes appear to have had little immediate impact on the Houthis' ongoing advances on the ground. On Sunday, the group effectively encircled the key city of Taiz after cutting the main supply route linking it to the interim government capital of Aden.

Fighting between the two sides in and around Taiz province killed more than 70 people in a single day, sources from both sides of the conflict told the French news agency AFP on Sunday. The agency previously reported that 80 combatants had been killed on Friday.

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Iran's foreign minister insisted on Sunday that there would be no military solution to the United States' war against the Islamic republic, with talks on ending the conflict apparently at an impasse.

A campaign of heavy U.S. bombardment failed to bring a decisive close to the war as it began, and Washington has dialed back military operations in recent weeks in favor of economic pressure.

The main point of contention remains Iran's continuing attempt to blockade the Strait of Hormuz, a vital conduit for Gulf oil and gas where a U.K. maritime agency reported on Sunday that another tanker had been struck by an unknown projectile.

"If our enemies again choose the path of military confrontation, our response will be stronger than before, and we will defend ourselves with even more force," Abbas Araghchi said at a gathering of his counterparts.

"There is no military solution, nor any solution based on new sanctions," he continued, adding "only negotiations based on justice and fairness" could end the conflict.

The two sides signed a memorandum of understanding in June that spelled out a framework for a permanent resolution, but Iranian attacks on vessels in the strait prompted the U.S. to resume military operations.

Iran has sought to impose its control over the vital shipping lane since the start of the war, striking vessels that try to transit without its authorization.

The U.S. has imposed a counterblockade of Iranian ports and has struck vessels it accuses of violating the countermeasure.

Middle East oil exports, excluding those from Iran, surpassed their pre-war levels last week, despite attacks on ships in the Strait of Hormuz, according to data from the maritime tracking firm Kpler.

For the first time since the U.S. and Israel launched their offensive against Iran at the end of February, the weekly average of shipments rose for several days above the pre-conflict average of 18 million barrels per day.

Crude oil exports reached pre-war levels in September, with at least 16.5 million barrels leaving the region excluding Iran, Kpler said.

"Forty percent now bypass Hormuz, and most crude crossing the strait changes tankers offshore," Kpler said, adding that most of the oil flowed through Saudi and United Arab Emirates pipelines.

Those figures include flows via the Red Sea, a route increasingly used to bypass the blockade Iran is attempting to impose on the strait, through which around a fifth of the world's petroleum supplies crossed before the conflict.

Iran still claims control over the strait, and ships without its authorization risk coming under attack, but more and more are making it out, and alternative routes meant to bypass the waterway are operating at full capacity.

Despite the rebound, experts stressed that the situation is far from normal, and Iran is still being deprived of a large share of its own exports by a U.S. counterblockade of Iranian ports. 

Energy Secretary Chris Wright said Sunday that President Trump was "well aware of the risks to energy flows" before launching the war in Iran earlier this year, but argued "the world cannot sustain a nuclear-armed Iran."

"He knew it was going to elevate energy prices in the short run, he said, 'I'm going to take a hit there, but I got to do the right thing,'" Wright said on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan."

Americans have been feeling the financial squeeze of soaring gas and diesel prices in recent months. But the Trump administration has pointed to the potential threat a nuclear-armed Iran could pose, and how it could represent a long-term threat to energy prices. Wright defended the president on Sunday, arguing that Mr. Trump has taken a "strong stand that Iran, the world's greatest terrorist regime, cannot and will not have nuclear weapons." 

Wright expressed confidence that prices will fall, pointing to increasing supplies coming out of the Strait of Hormuz, U.S. gasoline production, the summer driving season slowing, among other factors. Asked whether he expects prices to go down over the next four weeks — as Republicans eye a tough environment in the lead-up to the midterm elections — Wright said, "absolutely." 

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After President Trump rejected Tehran's proposed conditions for reopening the Strait of Hormuz — while leaving the door open to further talks or renewed military operations — Iranian officials said the U.S. response was being reviewed, and it was preparing one of its own.

"The Americans, through intermediaries, have also conveyed their views on this proposal, and these views are currently being examined inside the country through the relevant channels and procedures," Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi told reporters on Sunday, according to the Iranian state news agency IRNA.

"Whenever the final position of the Islamic Republic of Iran is ready, appropriate steps will be taken accordingly," he said. "At the same time, the Islamic Republic of Iran is also preparing itself for any other possible scenario."

Meanwhile, Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baqaei characterized the latest U.S. counterproposal as being "in line with their previous proposals concerning nuclear issues."

"We have clearly indicated that we are focusing on the issue of the Strait of Hormuz," he said Sunday, adding that reopening the waterway required "an end to the disruptions to Iranian commercial maritime traffic and the lifting of sanctions."

The U.S. and Israel have said the war is necessary to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons, though the focus soon shifted to reopening the Strait of Hormuz after its closure sent shockwaves through world energy markets.

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