Aug 9 (Reuters) – Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis said they had attacked Saudi Aramco’s Jazan refinery on Sunday, two days after the kingdom signed a defence pact with Turkey and Pakistan in response to growing regional instability from the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran.
With Iran and the United States still arguing over the parameters for peace, the Houthis declared a naval blockade against Saudi Arabia in the Red Sea last month, citing what they said was a Saudi siege on them, an allegation Riyadh denies.
The Saudi energy ministry said a fire had broken out at the refinery but was later extinguished with no injuries and authorities were dealing with the incident, without giving a cause.
The Houthis used a drone to target the refinery, military spokesperson Yahya Saree posted on X. They had struck Aramco sites before in Jazan, which processes 400,000 barrels of crude oil per day in southwestern Saudi Arabia. They had also hit Yanbu on the Red Sea.
They also carried out missile and drone strikes on the Yemeni Red Sea port city of Mocha, Saree said in a separate statement. The historic port city is controlled by the Aden-based government, which is internationally recognised and backed by Riyadh.
JAZAN REFINERY WAS SHUT IN LATE JULY, ACCORDING TO CONSULTANCY NOTE SEEN BY REUTERS
Three Yemeni government sources told Reuters air defences were engaging drones launched by the Houthis towards the commercial quay and storage in the port.
Saree said the Houthi strikes targeted Saudi troops and weapons arsenal in the area. There was no Saudi comment on the attacks in Yemen.
Iran and its allied Shi’ite Muslim armed groups have been firing on Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states and blockading their energy shipments since the U.S. and Israel attacked it on February 28 in a major escalation after years of regional tumult.
Aramco chief executive Amin Nasser said last week that recent attacks on the company’s facilities in the world’s top oil exporter had caused some production interruptions but that he was confident operations could be restored quickly. He said the attacks had no material operational or financial impact.
The escalations, which disrupted global energy supplies and rattled the world’s economy, prompted Saudi Arabia on Friday to form an alliance with Sunni Muslim U.S. allies, Turkey and Pakistan.
The accord is intended to strengthen collective deterrence against any act of aggression and stipulates that an armed attack against any of the three would be regarded as an attack on all.
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said the new alliance was not directed against Iran or any other country, but rather served as a general pledge to support the three allies’ security. It was not clear whether or how either Pakistan or Turkey would join in any Saudi response to the latest attacks.
Fidan said the allies would decide through consultations what degree, form, and format of support they would ask for in the event of an attack on any of them.
On July 27, Aramco shut the refinery in Jazan, which is near the border with Yemen, after an attack by Houthi militants damaged the plant’s Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) complex and tank farm area, according to a note from consultancy IIR seen by Reuters.
The refinery also produces gasoline and ultra-light sulfur diesel.
(Reporting by Hatem Maher, Nayera Abdallah, Tala Ramadan, and Mohammed Ghobari in Aden; Editing by William Mallard, Lincoln Feast and Philippa Fletcher)
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