Iran-backed Houthi rebels launched a drone attack on Saudi Aramco's Jizan refinery, a strategic asset for Red Sea exports. This escalation occurs immediately after Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Pakistan formed a NATO-style mutual defense pact, signaling a potential large-scale military response and troop mobilization against Houthi forces in Yemen.
James Kaufman on his report today.
Saudi refinery hit by Iran-backed Houthi rebels drone.
And Pakistan and Turkey now mobilized for attack on Yemen.
Yemen's Iran-backed Houthis claim responsibility
for a drone attack on Saudi Aramco's $21 billion Jizan
refinery located on Saudi Arabia's southwestern Red Sea coast.
roughly 44 miles from the Yemen border.
The facility is strategically important
because it allows Aramco to export refined products
through the Red Sea without transiting the Straits of Hormuz,
even if they have to use the Suez Canal to the north.
The attack also signals the growing vulnerability
of Saudi energy assets in the region,
where the Houthi forces have repeatedly targeted them
in recent weeks.
Well, that's not going to be happening much longer.
This is a two-part story,
and you're just getting the first part.
A Bloomberg report cites
Saudi Arabia's energy minister,
which said a fire broke out early Sunday
at the 400,000-barrel-a-day
Jizan refinery before being extinguished.
No injuries were reported whatsoever,
the ministry said in a post on X.
Without providing details on the cause of the fire, authorities
are completing necessary procedures to deal with the incident, it said.
Yemen's Houthi rebel group subsequently claimed
that they made the attack,
the group's military spokesperson said on a post and also on X.
Meanwhile, Friday, a major defense agreement between Saudi Arabia,
Turkey, Pakistan, and perhaps even Egypt was executed.
It seeks to strengthen joint deterrence
and expanding defensive cooperation, the Saudi press agency said.
Basically, a NATO-style agreement
that actually is for the Muslim world.
given that it stipulates and formalizes that an armed attack
on any of the countries within the agreement
will be treated as an attack on all of them.
On Saturday afternoon, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan affirmed,
this is very clear and the terms are very clear,
in this case there were not any doubts among the pundits,
Describing that this is indeed technically the same
as NATO's Article V Mutual Defense Agreement,
the Turkish Foreign Minister stated that via state news agencies
that the committee of ministers similar to what
is within NATO was formed to govern the new alliance.
The establishment
of a general secretariat base located in Saudi Arabia.
Now, Egypt is not formally within the agreement yet,
but it's considered to be a part
of the pact once certain technical matters are resolved.
Now, this new alliance is prepared
to defend Saudi Arabia from the Houthi rebels in Yemen.
Yemen should be scared to death, but instead the Houthi rebels
fired upon Saudi refinery after hearing the news on Sunday.
That's a bad idea in my opinion.
There are already troops that are gathering on the southern border
of Saudi Arabia, and it looks like there will be blood,
and I mean boots on the ground, going right through Yemen.
And think about it, Pakistan, nuclear power, Turkey,
nuclear power, Saudi Arabia, I'm sure they've got a nuke or two.
The Houthi rebels should have never attacked one
of Saudi Arabia's largest refineries.
Two days after this alliance was signed, they're asking for trouble,
and I'm afraid that that's just what they got, trouble.
God bless you guys. It's going to get real nasty out there.
I've already seen video of the troops amassing
at the southern Saudi Arabian border, and they're not there for fun.
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