Yemen asks US for help with Houthis as thousands displaced - BBC News.

Hello, I'm Maryam Mashiri and this is the Iran War Today, bringing you up to date with all you need to know on the US-Israel war with Iran. Well, let's start with some of today's key developments now. Yemen's president has asked Donald Trump for US support in the escalating conflict with the Houthis. That's according to several sources, but no direct promise of military support has yet been given. The fighting between the Houthis and government forces in Yemen has displaced more than 125,000 people, according to the UN, and thousands more have fled across the Bab al-Mandab Strait to Djibouti. The price of a barrel of crude oil dropped briefly under $100. That's the lowest it's been for days. With world leaders due to arrive in New York for the United Nations General Assembly, all eyes will be on whether a diplomatic breakthrough is possible. Could there even be a meeting between President Trump and Iran's President Pesashkian? Well, a further escalation in the Yemen conflict is threatening global energy supplies already strained by the war in Iran. Several sources say Yemen's president has asked Donald Trump for US support in their fight with Houthi rebels who are allied with Iran. Sources say Mr Trump gave no direct promise of military support to Rashad al-Alemi during a phone call on Sunday. Well, it only controls part of the country. Washington has already rebuffed requests for support from the Saudis against the Houthis. The messaging from Washington so far has been that the two sides are in continuing contact. And, of course, that the Houthis aren't planning to target US interests around the Bab al-Mandab Strait, which they now have greater control of. Meanwhile, the UN says the recent fighting between the Houthis and government forces has displaced more than 125,000 people in Yemen within the last few weeks. Thousands more have been fleeing across the Mandab Strait to Djibouti, from where our security correspondent Frank Gardner gave his assessment of the growing humanitarian crisis. Roughly 3,000 have come across the Bab al-Mandab Strait, which is the narrow waterway, the choke point that separates Yemen and the Arabian Peninsula from the African continent. And they've come across in boats, and I spoke to quite a lot of them today, who talked about the horrors that they've left behind, mainly the bombing. They're not really taking sides about being pro- or anti-Houthi. It's the airstrikes that are frightening them, and those are going to be predominantly Saudi, I would think. The UN, and I've just spoken to them very recently in the last few minutes, the UN High Commission for Refugees here, says that based on previous experience, they are expecting up to another 7,000 Yemeni refugees to come across in the next few days. Well, let's examine the conflict between the Houthis in Yemen and Saudi Arabia in a little bit more detail. The Houthis said on Saturday they had fired on Riyadh, where loud booms were followed by columns of smoke visible near the airport. Saudi Arabia hasn't commented on the first apparent strikes on the capital since the escalation began. Within Yemen itself, the Iran-backed group has been gaining ground in the past week, seizing key territory around the Red Sea. They now have control over the Bab al-Mandab Strait, that vital route for Saudi oil. But let's get more now from Frank Gardiner, because as he explained, this conflict between Saudis and the Houthis has been going on for years. So there are two things at play here. There is the Iran-US war, and you can see that Iran, which is bottled up in its Gulf ports, it can't get its oil out because of the US blockade by its warships in the Arabian Sea that are stopping Iran from exporting its oil. And Iran has pretty much taken the attitude, fine, you want to play that game, well, we can stop you getting your oil exports out. So it suits them that their ally, the Houthis, are saying no Saudi oil exports, no Saudi tankers can get past the Bab al-Mandab Strait just behind me, up the coast from here. But there is also the Houthi factor themselves. The Houthis fought a seven-year war with the Saudis, who tried to bomb them into submission from 2015 to 2022. There was a kind of shaky UN-broken truce. That has erupted again because the Saudis bombed Sana'a Airport, and also the Saudis have got a blockade on Yemen's air and sea. Now, what the Houthis want is a lifting of that blockade. They would probably be prepared to do a deal with Saudi, especially if it involved some Saudi money. But if this escalates, and it could, the Saudis could decide, look, we need to deal once and for all with this, which is why they were calling for US help. Then I think that risks sending even more refugees to here, Djibouti, across the waterway, and it will mean more missile and drone strikes on Saudi economic targets and places like Riyadh's King Khaled Airport. A UK-based maritime agency says two crew members were likely wounded when their tanker was hit by an unknown projectile in the Strait of Hormuz. United Kingdom maritime trade organisation says the vessel is reported to be continuing to its next port of call under its own power. Iran has been continuing its efforts to keep control of that vital waterway by sporadically firing at traffic that Tehran hasn't authorised. The US Treasury Secretary Scott Besant has warned Iranian airlines will have trouble functioning globally in two days under the weight of American sanctions as the Trump administration seeks to keep pressure on Tehran. On September 23, all the Iranian airlines will be shut down around the world, Besant told CNBC in an interview. He added by saying if they land, you cannot provide them with fuel, you cannot provide them with landing services, you cannot sell them tickets or you'll be knocked out of the dollar system. Iranian state media reports the United States has refused to issue visas for members of the Iranian President Massoud Pazeshgian's delegation, including his communications team, for their trip this week to the UN General Assembly. Pazeshgian will now be the highest ranking Iranian official to enter the United States since the Middle East war began with US-Israeli strikes on Iran in February. Iran says it's conveyed to the US via Qatar as mediator conditions for reopening the strategic Strait of Hormuz oil and gas shipping route which it has choked off since the war began. Well, the US in turn is imposing a counter-blockade of Iranian ports. All of this, as President Trump has reportedly told Fox News, that he's in deciding mode on the war with Iran. Well, with more, here's our Middle East correspondent Yolan Nel with some of the key issues being grappled with at the UN this week. There have been some strong rhetoric that's been coming from Iran suggesting that they had got word that the US was preparing some major attack. There's been no comment like that from Washington but they have been threatening through the Revolutionary Guards that they have new weapons that they say will astonish the world and new targets and saying that they're ready to attack US interests and targets in the region as well as US regional allies if any further attacks do take place. Things have really looked to be as some kind of a stalemate when it comes to the talks between the US and Iran but there are some signs of diplomacy going on. The Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi having stopped in Qatar on his way to the UN General Assembly. Qatar, of course, has been a mediating country. We're expecting the Pakistani Interior Minister to go to Iran for talks also in the course of the day. The Iranians have been saying that they have put to the Americans through mediators a plan with seven conditions for ending the war. It seems that the wars around the region, they have not published that plan but of course what they have previously been demanding is that their frozen assets should be unfrozen, that the US should lift all economic sanctions and lift its naval blockade of Iranian ports. Well, let's talk about oil now. Who needs it and who controls access to it? It is, of course, a powerful bargaining chip in this war but this side of the weekend oil prices, well, they're actually lower after reports suggesting Gulf exports are higher than previously expected. Traders are closely watching a recovery in Saudi shipments following missile and drone attacks by Iran-backed Houthis over the weekend. The price of Brent North Sea crude, the main international benchmark, actually sunk below a hundred dollars a barrel, its lowest in days, all eyes now on New York and, of course, that UN meeting there this week. Andrew Critchlow, his head of Energy News at Dow Jones, gave us this assessment of the main focus of those talks. Energy really is the number one story in town at the moment. Yes, oil prices are a little bit flatter today in early trading in Asia, I think, as you mentioned, two percent down. But, you know, all the signals around fundamentals are pointing in the other direction. You have these attacks on Moscow and refineries in Russia over the weekend. You've got further attacks in Saudi Arabia, more concerns over the Bab Al-Mendab Straits, ongoing concerns about the Strait of Hormuz. And it's all being reflected in, in actual, the prices that really matter for consumers, and that's fuel prices. And we've got record high diesel prices here in the United States, record high gasoline prices. And we're heading in the same direction in Europe. And there's talk now in the United States, very serious talk about a potential export ban of diesel. And that would be a dagger blow, really, for the European economy at the moment, heading into winter, where you do get more seasonal demand, especially for diesel and heating oil. With world leaders starting to arrive in New York, the expanding conflict in the Middle East, with its direct impact on consumers in the form of higher energy prices and the increasing tensions created between allies, means there'll be even greater focus on the U.S. President Donald Trump, who he meets and what he says. With more, here's my colleague Sumi Somaskanda. All eyes will be on President Trump as he arrives here in New York today, with the Iran war casting a long shadow over this gathering in New York. Now, over the weekend, we understand President Trump was again weighing up the possibility of ramping up military operations against Iran, telling Fox News he was considering whether to, quote, annihilate Iran. That is something we have heard from him in the past. But it comes against the backdrop of the stunning Houthis advance along the Red Sea and their ability as well to strike Saudi targets. Now, we understand President Trump, his administration have been hesitant to engage directly with the Houthis. One analyst in Washington who has worked on Houthi and Yemen issues in previous administrations told me that is simply because the administration is very wary of getting entangled and bogged further down into this war, another aspect of this war. That will be, of course, cold comfort to the Saudis. President Trump is expected to hold a meeting with Gulf leaders on Tuesday here in New York. And it is very likely that Gulf leaders, in particular Saudi Arabia, will raise this issue with him, will want President Trump to take a stronger line on the Houthis. And there might be domestic pressure for President Trump to do so as well. Diesel prices here in the U.S. have been hitting new highs in recent weeks. And in fact, members of President Trump's own parties, Republican Senator Chuck Grassley, for example, have floated the idea of President Trump banning any diesel exports from the U.S. in order to stabilize the supply and the prices up here in the country. We don't have any indication whether the White House is actually considering whether to do so. But with the midterm elections just weeks away, there certainly is increasing pressure on the president. Well, as we've been reporting, Iran's President Massoud Pazeshgian will be attending the U.N. General Assembly, the first such visit since President Trump launched Operation Epic Fury against his country alongside Israel in February. Well, let's cross live and speak to BBC Persian's Bahman Khalbosi, who's outside the U.N. in New York. Bahman, what are the chances of a meeting between the U.S. president and the Iranian president? Very slim. We don't want to say it's impossible, but Mr. Pazeshgian would take a huge risk to take such a meeting without the consent and support of the leadership in Tehran, be it IRGC and the Supreme Leader himself. And there's no indication that they think such a meeting could produce anything. Therefore, a impromptu meeting or any step for them to talk directly would possibly put Mr. Pazeshgian's entire job at danger. He could face impeachment in the hardline-controlled parliament. Some of the hardliners in Tehran are already saying he shouldn't even go to New York at all, a country that has bombed us and killed our Supreme Leader. Therefore, the trip itself is facing some criticism, let alone dealing or meeting with Donald Trump directly. But again, I can't say it's impossible. There is a chance that such consent has been given by the leadership if they thought that a meeting like this could open up a diplomatic path. There's just no indication of it as of yet. We've been reporting on those heavy sanctions on Iranian airliners and Iran Air now. How badly is Iran's economy suffering? Terribly suffering. And the airline industry was already suffering before this, the commercial airline industry in Iran, because of these sanctions. Mainly, you can't purchase new planes, you can't even repair some of these planes. And now it's tightened to the point where they might not be able to get fuel when they go to an airport in countries around Iran. So the price will be paid by ordinary Iranians, not the regime. They'll have their planes, they'll get around. It's the ordinary Iranians who face the horror. We just had pictures of it last week of one plane almost crashing, people facing near-death experiences on these very old, almost antiquated planes. And Mr. Besant here, the Secretary of Treasury, holding up this as a sign of victory and success of the sanctions, without mentioning that really the Iranian people are paying the price, not the regime. And if you can, explain the relationship between Tehran and the Houthis. We've been reporting, haven't we, on what the Houthis have been doing in the Red Sea. But how strongly coordinated are they? Presumably, Tehran's backing of the Houthis is, well, it's paying real dividends for them now. It is helpful to have the Houthis succeed and possibly be able to put pressure on Bab al-Mandab. But the idea that Houthis only operate on Tehran's order is a bit divorced from reality. They do have their own interests. They operate when they think it will serve them, especially vis-à-vis Saudi Arabia. They have objectives, very clear objectives of lifting the sanctions and blockade the Saudis have placed on them. So if they get that, they don't necessarily follow everything else Tehran tells them to do. So the relationship is close, but it's not one of master and server. These are countries and groups with different interests at times when it comes to self-preservation and staying in power. Okay, Bab al-Mandab, great to talk to you. Thank you very much indeed. Whether you're joining us on YouTube, TikTok, sounds, radio or TV, thank you for your time. We're back soon with another Iran War Today.