By R Anil Kumar
Washington/Bengaluru, July 24, 2026. US President Donald Trump promised “major military punishment” for Iran and its Houthi allies after the Yemeni fighters struck two Saudi oil tankers in the Red Sea, extending the Middle East war to a second major shipping chokepoint.
Fears that disruption could widen to block another sea route sent global oil prices surging in one of the steepest rises of the war. Brent crude rose more than 6%, piercing the level of $100 a barrel for the first time since May.
Two weeks since the effective collapse of an interim truce meant to end the war, the US military launched air strikes on Iran late on Thursday and early on Friday, for a 13th consecutive night of attacks, prompting Iran to fire at neighbouring Arab countries that host US bases.
On both Thursday and Friday nights, Iranian state media said missiles struck Qeshm Island on the Strait of Hormuz, the virtually closed waterway that is the focus of a war well into its fifth month that has killed thousands and fanned fears of a global economic downturn.
Four people were killed and five injured in a US missile attack on the Iranian city of Ahvaz, state broadcaster IRIB said.
TRUMP: IRAN HASN’T ‘RECEIVED ENOUGH PAIN YET’
After the Houthis said they had struck the two tankers on Thursday, Trump said he would hold Iran accountable for any further attacks by the fighters.
The Houthis, who control northern and western Yemen, said they were imposing a naval blockade on Saudi Arabia, which has diverted millions of barrels of oil each day by pipeline to the Red Sea to skirt Iran’s blockade in the Strait of Hormuz.
“If they do this again, the US will hold Iran responsible, in that the Houthis are a Surrogate and/or Proxy of Iran, and major military punishment will be inflicted upon Iran and, of course, the Houthis, themselves,” Trump wrote on social media.
He told Axios he was considering re-launching major combat operations in Iran and was close to a decision.
“They haven’t received enough pain yet,” the news outlet quoted Trump as saying.
On social media, Trump said “any and all damages done” to cargo ships would be paid for with “Iranian Money,” referring to frozen Iranian assets held by the United States, but without saying how.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Arachi responded with a warning on X, saying, “Seizing another nation’s assets to pay for unrelated future claims is an incendiary precedent.”
No one’s assets were safe once governments normalised such confiscation, he added on Friday. “Ensuing chaos will not be pretty or peaceful.”
Sources in Iran and Yemen told Reuters that Iran had flown Revolutionary Guard commanders, military advisers and missile- and drone-related equipment into Yemen days before the Houthis announced their blockade. The Houthis dismissed the report.
The Houthis said their forces had carried out missile and drone strikes on Saudi oil tankers, the Encelia and the Layla.
A maritime security source said the Encelia sent a distress call that it had been struck by a missile near the Saudi port of Jizan in the Red Sea just north of Yemen on Wednesday. Saudi state news agency SPA said the strike caused a fire at the bow.
Reports could not immediately confirm the attack on the Layla, or other battlefield accounts, but Trump mentioned two attacks on Saudi tankers.
Shipping insurance costs through the southern Red Sea doubled for some companies on Thursday, after the reported attacks, sources said.
Houthi attacks could close the strait known as the Bab el-Mandeb or “Gate of Tears” which controls access from the Red Sea to the Indian Ocean, the second most important route for energy shipments after the Strait of Hormuz at the mouth of the Gulf.
In the days since they unveiled their blockade in the Red Sea, several tankers have changed course to avoid the Bab el-Mandeb.
Instead, they have headed north through the Suez Canal, potentially using a much longer and more expensive route to reach Asian customers by sailing around Africa.
The number of tankers crossing the Strait of Hormuz fell to just one on Thursday, its lowest since May 7, shiptracking data showed.
IRAN REPORTS STRIKES ON JORDAN, KUWAIT
Iran said it attacked US missile systems, weapons and fuel storage sites in Jordan, as well as US military posts in Kuwait.
Jordan’s army said it engaged four Iranian missiles and six drones in the past day, intercepting all but one missile, which fell in an uninhabited area.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said they struck a US electronic warfare unit at Al-Adiri base in Kuwait, causing unspecified casualties, in response to an overnight strike on Iran’s Shalamcheh border crossing with Iraq.
Neither the United States nor Kuwait has reported casualties at the base.
Iranian military spokesperson Brigadier General Mohammad Akraminia said Iran would keep retaliating as long as the US continued to attack its infrastructure and coastal areas, Iranian state TV reported.
Since the US and Israel began the war in February, Iran has demonstrated that it can hit US targets in the region, despite Trump having said early on that the US had wiped out Iranian military capabilities.
Four people familiar with US intelligence said Iranian strikes on CIA targets in the Gulf earlier in the war had prompted US intelligence to investigate whether Russia was assisting Iran with targeting information or drone technology.
High oil prices are stoking inflation globally, putting Trump’s Republican allies under pressure ahead of congressional elections in November.
The Republican-led US House of Representatives backed legislation on Thursday directing Trump to halt US military action against Iran, for the latest rebuke by Congress, which has the exclusive power to “declare War” under the US Constitution.
Repeated similar resolutions passed in recent months have not led to cessation of the war. The Senate voted hours later to block a separate, similar measure.
US says Saudi nuclear deal off without Israel recognition
US President Donald Trump conditioned a civilian nuclear cooperation deal with Saudi Arabia on Thursday, July, 23, on Riyadh normalizing relations with Israel, an action the kingdom has so far refused to take.
Trump said the deal would take effect only if Saudi Arabia joined the US-brokered Abraham Accords under which several Arab states established ties with Israel. The kingdom has long rejected joining the accords absent a pathway toward Palestinian statehood.
Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, said Trump had spoken with Gulf and Arab allies many times about pegging the deal to the Abraham Accords and that if the kingdom does not join them “the deal is off.”
The US and Saudi Arabia announced the agreement on Wednesday allowing Riyadh to enrich uranium and build nuclear reactors using US technology without the snap UN inspections Washington has demanded of Iran.
TRUMP TIES SAUDI NUCLEAR DEAL TO ABRAHAM ACCORDS
In a post on Truth Social on Thursday, Trump wrote: “The Civil Nuclear Deal (There will be no enrichment of material!)… pertains only to non-military use such as the ones that Iran and UAE (and others) already have, will be approved, but is totally subject to Saudi Arabia joining the very respected and successful Abraham Accords.”
“The United States is not opposed to Civil (Non-Enriched) Nuclear Facilities,” Trump said.
The US Congress will have 90 session days to review the deal before it goes into force. There would also be a two-year feasibility study on the enrichment part of the agreement.
The Saudi Embassy in Washington did not respond to a request for comment on Trump’s post.
Saudi Arabia said before Trump pegged the deal to the Abraham Accords that the agreement supports efforts to diversify energy sources, and includes the “highest international standards” of nuclear safety, security and non-proliferation.
‘WE’LL CONTINUE TO TALK,’ PRESS SECRETARY SAYS
“We’ll continue to talk with our Saudi counterparts to get the deal finalized and hopefully see them joining Abraham Accords very soon,” Leavitt told reporters at the White House.
Leavitt said she did not believe Trump had spoken with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman since his post, but it was something he had raised in previous conversations.
The United Arab Emirates and Bahrain signed the Abraham Accords during Trump’s first term in 2020, breaking a longstanding taboo to become the first Arab states to recognize Israel in a quarter century. Morocco and Sudan followed suit.
Israel, which feared the Saudi deal could ignite a Middle East arms race, welcomed the condition on Thursday.
“Saudi Arabia’s joining of the Abraham Accords would be an historic leap forward for peace in the Middle East,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said in a statement.
Leavitt said she did not know if Netanyahu had requested that the deal be contingent on the wider accords. “Not to my knowledge, no,” she told reporters.
On Wednesday, the Trump administration said the civil nuclear deal abides by nonproliferation agreements in the US Atomic Energy Act, which are among the world’s strongest.
The deal would let Saudi Arabia enrich uranium and reprocess nuclear waste, both of which are potential pathways to a nuclear weapon. The UAE agreed to forgo both when it signed a similar deal with the US in 2009.
It was unclear what Trump meant in his social media post when he said there would be no nuclear enrichment under the agreement. It was not immediately clear if that was a specific reference to the highly enriched uranium used in weapons. Weapons-grade uranium is enriched to about 90% while fuel for nuclear reactors is enriched to up to 6%.
The UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency said it was awaiting a request from Washington and Riyadh to implement verification measures under the agreement before seeking authorization from its board of governors.
