With no sign of a diplomatic breakthrough in sight, the war, launched with U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran on February 28, has spread across the Middle East,
killing thousands and hitting the
world economy with the biggest-ever disruption to global energy supplies.
On Saturday, Israel said it carried out a wave of strikes on Tehran, targeting what the military said were infrastructure sites belonging to the Iranian government. Iran also kept up its attacks,
hitting an air base in Saudi Arabia and wounding 12 U.S. military personnel, two of them seriously.
Rotation? The Abraham Lincoln is parked in the Arabian Sea & the George Bush is rotating in? Yemen's
Iran-aligned Houthis launched missiles at Israel on Saturday, their first such attack since the start of the
Iran war, heightening the risk that a conflict that has entered its fifth week could expand further across the region.
View attachment 33872
The attack by the Houthis represented a potentially ominous new threat to global shipping, already severely disrupted by the effective
closure of the critical
Strait of Hormuz, the conduit for around a fifth of world oil supplies.
View attachment 33876
The group, which has launched regular missile attacks against Israel in recent years, has shown an ability to strike targets far beyond Yemen and disrupt shipping lanes around the Arabian Peninsula and the Red Sea as they did in support of Hamas in Gaza after October 7, 2023.
If the Houthis
open a new front in the conflict, one obvious target would be the Bab al-Mandab Strait off the coast of Yemen, a key choke point for sea traffic towards the Suez Canal that could add to the turmoil in world trade.
With crucial midterm elections approaching in November, the increasingly
unpopular war has weighed on Trump's Republican Party and he has appeared eager to end it quickly. Speaking on Friday before the Houthi attack, Rubio (Trumps Secretary of State) said Washington was "on or ahead of schedule". He said military operations were expected to be concluded in "weeks, not months".
View attachment 33873
Rubio also told Group of Seven counterparts in France that European and Asian countries which benefit from trade through the Strait of Hormuz (or did so before Feb 28th) should contribute to efforts to secure free passage, adding to earlier “
calls” by Trump…
View attachment 33874…who said the lack of support from NATO allies had
implications for the West's most important alliance.
View attachment 33875
The charter underlying the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, which has long been led by the U.S., says
an attack on (not by) one member is an attack on all, requiring them to support each other.
(YouTube & Trump threatens NATO allies to help keep Strait of Hormuz open)
In March 2026, President Trump demanded and threatened NATO allies to help secure the Strait of Hormuz, rather than simply asking, following Iran's blockage of the waterway. He threatened a "
very bad future" if they did not assist, criticized them as having "
no courage"and being a "
one-way street", but later claimed the U.S. never needed their help.
(YouTube & Alliances crumble as Trump sends chilling warning to NATO after Iran war abandonment)
apple.news
