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Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Iraq reported drone attacks on Monday, two days after the United States abruptly halted a two-week campaign of airstrikes against Iran, as Tehran appeared to be testing US President Donald Trump’s U-turn.
Saudi Arabia said it shot down drones targeting fuel, some in its eastern province and some in the capital Riyadh. It said the drones were launched into Iraq by Iran-backed forces, and reserved the right to respond.
Separately, Iran’s Houthi allies in Yemen say they have targeted oil tankers at Saudi Arabia’s Yanbu oil port, in retaliation for what they say are Saudi drones entering Yemeni airspace. The Houthis last week threatened to extend global oil supply disruptions to a second major waterway by announcing a blockade of Saudi Arabia’s oil industry, sending oil prices skyrocketing.
Earlier on Monday, Jordan reported that it had shot down two drones, while Iraqi security sources reported a series of airstrikes on camps housing Iranian Kurdish forces in northern Iraq.
Officials did not reveal the sources of those drones.
Brent crude, which briefly topped $100 US a barrel last week for the first time since May, fell as much as 6.5 percent on Monday to just over $90, touching as low as $87.55.
The US halted the attack over the weekend
Iran said on Monday it still controls the Strait of Hormuz and does not want to continue peace talks with the United States, after Trump over the weekend called off a two-week bombing campaign that his leader had told him had begun.
Following 13 consecutive nights of escalating bombing that prompted Tehran to fire on US bases in response, Trump suspended the campaign over the weekend. Iran has said it will stop its attacks as long as the US stands still.
In the meantime20:43The Red Sea attack threatens to escalate the US-Iran War
The Iran-aligned Houthis have threatened to block the Red Sea, raising concerns about global oil supplies and the escalation of the Iran War. Gregg Carlstrom, The Economist’s Middle East Correspondent, talks about how we got to this point. Thomas Juneau, Associate Professor at the University of Ottawa’s Graduate School of Public and International Affairs, discusses why the Houthis are conducting this naval blockade.
The end of the US bombing campaign sent oil prices tumbling on hopes that global supply disruptions could start flowing again.
The US ambassador to the United Nations, Mike Waltz, said on Sunday that Trump had paused the campaign to make room for negotiations. Trump, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and other US officials have described Iran as “begging for a deal.”
But the spokesman of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Iran, Esmail Baghaei, in a televised press conference on Monday that Iran did not ask to resume peace talks with the United States.
Messages were still being passed between the sides by mediators, but “reports about Iran asking to negotiate with the US are false,” Baghaei said. “This is not in our DNA.”
Tehran also pointed out that it still controls the world’s most important waterway for energy markets.
The suspension of the new US bombing campaign does not leave a clear indication of whether Washington can achieve Trump’s goal of breaking Iran’s grip on the crisis.
Trump launched his new bombing campaign to punish Iran after Tehran fired on ships using a transit route from the United States, which told the ships to sail closer to the coast of Oman.
In June, CBC’s senior international reporter Margaret Evans and videographer Lyza Sale were granted rare access to report inside Iran. Where they could go and what they could report on was tightly controlled, but Iranian authorities had no editorial influence on content and were not given access to CBC News material before it was published.
Iran says ships can only pass through a port close to its coast, which it controls and where it intends to charge a toll.
Washington and Tehran reached an agreement in June on a framework for talks that were supposed to be held by the end of August to resolve major issues such as Iran’s nuclear program.
But the sides have disputed the meaning of the memorandum’s language regarding the Strait of Hormuz, with Washington insisting it requires Tehran to allow free movement while Iran says it gives it authority to oversee transit.
Netanyahu meeting with Trump for the 1st time since the start of the war
Two weeks of renewed US bombing have killed scores of people in Iran and destroyed bridges and tunnels in the south and military targets.
Four US personnel were killed by Iranian airstrikes against US bases in neighboring Arab states. Iran also attacked civilian infrastructure in Gulf countries in what it said was retaliation for US strikes against civilians.
Iran intends to formalize its control over the strait in an agreement with Oman, which controls the opposite coast.
Israel did not participate in the two-week bombing campaign in the US this month.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday headed to the US to meet with Trump in Washington earlier this week.
It will be Netanyahu’s eighth meeting with Trump since the US president returned to office, and the first since February, just before Israel and the United States launched a joint air campaign against Iran.
“In these complex times, you need to act with great determination and great wisdom. We will discuss all the issues on the agenda, especially Iran. Yes, our goal is to protect our security and expand the circle of peace around us,” Netanyahu said in a video statement during the departure.
The US and Israel cooperated last year in a nearly two-week bombing campaign, during which Trump said Iran’s nuclear program had been “destroyed.”
The meeting comes as support for Israel in the United States is declining, according to polls taken from both Democratic and Republican registered voters.
