Iran is now threatening worlds largest oil facility and vast pipeline after Houthi attacks escalate
The Iran-backed Houthi rebels are now in a position to threaten Saudi Arabia’s 745-mile-long pipeline and the world’s largest oil processing plant — escalating the risk to global fuel supplies.The Houthis’ lightning advance through the Yemeni coast has allowed the Bab al-Mandeb Strait to fall under its control, with the terror group threatening the kingdom’s largest pipeline and the oil processing plant in Abqaiq, has been compared to “the Panama Canal of global energy markets” for its impact.The Houthis are already believed to have been behind the attack on the massive East-West pipeline, which along with Abqaiq and other oil facilities stand as easy targets for the rebels, according to security experts.“There is an inherent problem in trying to defend large, fixed infrastructure from the Houthi attacks,” said Kelly Campa, the head of the Middle East team for the Institute for the Study of War.“Attacks on the pipeline are very concerning… and its clear that this is an Axis of Resistance effort to go after Saudi oil and impose more economic pains.” President Trump, meanwhile, has suggested that the expanded conflict is an internal issue for Yemen and Saudi Arabia that could be resolved quickly.The Houthi rebels rose to global prominence after they captured Yemen’s capital of Sanaa in 2014 as part of a bloody civil war between the Iran-backed terror group and the Saudi-backed federal government.While a cease-fire was settled in 2022, the truce fell apart in July after Saudi-linked forces bombed a runway near the capital to keep an Iranian plane from landing.The plane was revealed to have been carrying Iranian advisers and military equipment that would be instrumental to the Houthis’ latest assault.The incident sparked repeated attacks on Yemen’s internationally recognized government and Saudi Arabia, with the terror group announcing a maritime blockade on all Saudi ships in the Red Sea.Tehran and the Houthis had repeatedly warned that...