Here's the latest
• Strait of Hormuz: Iran and Oman have each signaled they are close to a deal on managing the key waterway, even as the United Arab Emirates blamed Tehran for a fresh attack on an oil tanker Saturday. Traffic in the strait remains subdued as shipping companies await clarity.
• US dilemma: Sources tell CNN the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff has privately made clear that the US needs to find an off-ramp from the war with Iran, because the military options on the table to escalate the conflict could backfire.
• Widening conflict: Iran has dismissed a NATO-like defense pact that Saudi Arabia signed with Turkey and Pakistan as it faces growing threats from Iranian proxies, and a member of the Houthi militant group said it does not need orders from Tehran to ramp up its attacks against the kingdom.
Hormuz deal "very close" but reopening is conditional on US compensation, Iran says
Iran says it is “very close” to a deal with Oman on managing the Strait of Hormuz, but that an agreement won’t be sufficient on its own to reopen the vital waterway.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told reporters Saturday that the reopening of the strait was “subject to other conditions,” including the United States making amends for what he said was a violation of the memorandum of understanding agreed between the two countries in June.
He singled out Article Five of the agreement — which called on Iran to “make arrangements” for vessel transits through Hormuz — claiming that the US undermined Tehran’s management of the strait by seeking to establish its own alternative routes. Some ships have transited the strait under the protection of the US Navy.
About the potential deal: Under the Iran-Oman agreement, Araghchi said vessels would transit the strait via a temporary route until the countries agreed to a new route that would replace the historic “Traffic Separation Scheme,” which ships had been using before the war. “A new TSS needs to be established, which of course involves extensive technical and legal complexities,” the foreign minister said.
Iranian officials have previously indicated that a deal with Oman on managing the strait was imminent. On Saturday, Oman said talks had been “constructive” but warned that ongoing Iranian attacks on vessels threatened progress.
At least one oil tanker was targeted Saturday as it attempted to transit the strait. The UAE has blamed Tehran for the attack.
Negotiations to open Strait of Hormuz are "positive and constructive," Oman's FM says
Ongoing negotiations with Iran over navigation through the Strait of Hormuz are “positive and constructive,” Oman’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Saturday.
However, the ministry warned that Iran’s continued targettng of vessels transiting the strait puts any progress in the talks at risk.
It comes after an Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) oil tanker was targeted by a missile as it transited the key waterway this morning, the company said in a statement. The UAE’s foreign ministry and Gulf Cooperation Council — the political and economic alliance in the region explictly blamed Iran for the attack.
On Thursday, Tehran said it was finalizing a deal with Oman for the movement of vessels through the Strait of Hormuz. However, a deal between the two nations does not mean the waterway will reopen, as Tehran said it requires a number of guarantees from the United States if vessels are to transit the strait freely.
CNN’s Issy Ronald, Aida Karimi and Nadeen Ebrahim contributed reporting.
How both Iran and Oman have economic claims to the Strait of Hormuz
Iran is waiting for “final approval” on a proposed framework agreement with Oman for shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, Iranian state media reported yesterday.
Under the agreement, Iranian and Omani routes will remain in use temporarily before traffic is redirected through a central course, according to Iran’s semi-official Fars News Agency. Officials in Iran would oversee inbound traffic, while their Omani counterparts would manage outbound traffic, Fars said.
The vital Strait of Hormuz has been effectively closed by Iran since the US and Israel began the war back in February. It is the main route for shipping crude from oil-rich countries such as Saudi Arabia and Kuwait to the rest of the world.
Both Tehran and Muscat have Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ) in the strait.
According to the United Nations, a state has “sovereign rights” to explore, exploit, conserve and manage the natural resources of the waters in its EEZ.
However, under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), “ships of all States, whether coastal or land-locked, enjoy the right of innocent passage through the territorial sea.”
A coastal state should not “hamper the innocent passage of foreign ships through the territorial sea,” it says, except in specific outlined scenarios. It may “take the necessary steps in its territorial sea to prevent passage which is not innocent,” UNCLOS outlines.
CNN’s Aida Karimi and Sana Noor Haq contributed to this reporting.
UAE oil tanker attacked by missile in Strait of Hormuz
An Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) oil tanker was targeted by a missile as it transited the Strait of Hormuz this morning, the company said in a statement released by the United Arab Emirates’ state-run WAM news agency.
No one was injured in the incident, and the situation is “under control,” the statement added. The UAE’s foreign ministry and Gulf Cooperation Council - the political and economic alliance in the region - also condemned the attack, explictly blaming Iran for it.
“This assault represents a dangerous and unacceptable escalation, as well as a direct threat to the security and safety of maritimate navigation … in one of the world’s most vital waterways,” Jasem Mohamed AlBudaiwi, the GCC’s Secretary General, said in a statement.
Just this week alone, three ADNOC vessels have been attacked by missiles and drones in the strait, the company said in a separate statement on Friday.
The Strait of Hormuz, the critical waterway which has become the central flashpoint of this war, remains extremely dangerous as Iranian forces have repeatedly targeted vessels attempting to transit, leading to its effective closure.
Since the beginning of the war, 15 ADNOC vessels have come under attack, killing one crew member and injuring 20 others.
Earlier today, Sepah News, the official website of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), reported a UAE oil tanker had come under attack and “is currently burning in the US-supported shipping route.” ADNOC did not specify exactly where the vessel had been hit.
Iran has used its effective control over the strait as a bargaining chip in its negotiations with the US. And on Saturday, IRGC spokesperson Brigadier General Hossein Mohibi reiterated Tehran’s position that the strait’s reopening “depends on the US fully accepting Iran’s conditions and refraining from interfering in the regional negotiation process.”
Some details of a tentative agreement between Iran and Oman to manage commercial shipping through the strait emerged yesterday. It remains unclear whether Oman or the United States has agreed to the arrangement described by Iranian media.
CNN’s Abbas Al Lawati, Aida Karimi and Sana Noor Haq contributed reporting.
Strait of Hormuz transits "subdued," as Iran and Oman finalize plans for control
Vessel transits through the Strait of Hormuz “remained subdued” yesterday, according to maritime intelligence firm Kpler, as ship operators await further details of plans by Iran and Oman to manage the vital waterway.
Just eight vessels transited the strait Friday, fewer than the previous day, with confirmed crossings since Monday down on the previous week, Kpler data showed.
Questions remain about exactly how transits through the strait will be managed and whether Washington and its allies will agree to any new arrangement that sees Hormuz jointly controlled by Iran and Oman.
Ship traffic is unlikely to return to pre-war levels, of around 130 to 140 crossings a day, according to analysts, which could keep oil prices elevated for longer.
Some context: Leading shipping groups have warned against potential tolls or “service fees” in the Strait of Hormuz, saying in an open letter to the International Maritime Organization on Monday that such measures would push up the costs of trade and undermine freedom of navigation.
Brent crude prices settled at $83.55 a barrel Friday, having dipped below $80 a barrel earlier in the week on optimism that a deal to reopen the strait could be imminent. Global oil prices have been volatile in recent weeks amid heightened uncertainty about potential outcomes from the Iran war.
The latest on the US-Iran conflict, as the Strait of Hormuz remains center-stage
While tensions have ramped up between Yemen’s Houthis and Saudi Arabia in recent days, here’s a reminder of the latest developments in the conflict between the US and Iran.
Strait of Hormuz
- Iran and Oman have been negotiating new shipping routes through the crucial Strait of Hormuz, which Tehran has effectively closed since the start of the conflict.
- Yesterday, Iran’s state media reported that lawmakers were waiting for “final approval” on a proposed framework agreement with Oman.
- Lawmakers have also drafted a bill to regulate traffic through the waterway, including restrictions on certain vessels and penalties for violators, according to Iran’s semi-official Fars News Agency.
What the US is saying:
- US Vice President JD Vance said on Wednesday that negotiations with Iran would “be messy” and take time, adding that “the Iranians are extraordinarily difficult people” with “a fractured system.”
- US President Donald Trump has privately complained that disclosures on the dwindling US munitions stockpile make the US look weak at a critical juncture, senior US officials said, as he repeatedly threatens additional military action to try and motivate Iran to agree to a deal.
- Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Dan Caine has privately made clear to other top Trump advisers that Washington needs to find an off-ramp from the war, according to three sources familiar with the matter.
What Iran is saying:
- Iran’s parliament speaker and top negotiator accused Trump of “theater diplomacy” on Thursday, as Washington and Tehran gave conflicting accounts of whether US-Iran talks to reopen the Strait of Hormuz were taking place.
- Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, yesterday praised the military and called for Muslim unity, saying that Iran’s armed forces have “shown their readiness, capability, and might” when facing the US.
- Tehran is also showing off some of the US and Israeli aircraft it has brought down during the almost six-month war in the Persian Gulf, displaying the wreckage in what appears to be an underground bunker.
CNN’s Aida Karimi, Sana Noor Haq, Sophie Tanno, Piper Hudspeth Blackburn, Kevin Liptak, Kristen Holmes, Zachary Cohen, Alayna Treene, Alessandra Freitas, Mitchell McCluskey, Brad Lendon and Isaac Yee contributed to this reporting.
Tensions between Houthis and Saudis escalate, as region reacts to new defense pact
The conflict in the Middle East has expanded, as tensions between Yemen’s Houthis and Saudi Arabia escalate.
Saudi Arabia signed a mutual NATO-style defense pact with Pakistan and Turkey yesterday, stipulating that an attack against any of them “shall be regarded as an attack against them all.”
Here’s the latest:
- Iranian officials have warned that the recently-signed mutual defense pact will not guarantee Saudi Arabia’s security, attempting to downplay the agreement.
- A former US ambassador, however, described the signing of the pact as “one of the more important developments of this war,” indicating that it signals a loss of faith in US security guarantees in the region.
- A member of the Houthis’ politburo told CNN that the group does not need orders from Tehran to ramp up its conflict with Saudi Arabia, saying Saudi aggression against it is reason enough for military action.
- The UN Special Envoy to Yemen says the country is facing its greatest risk of renewed conflict since the UN-brokered truce between the Houthis and Saudi-backed Yemeni government in April 2022.
- Meanwhile, Iran is marking Journalist’s Day, an event held annually to commemorate the death of a journalist working for state media nearly 30 years ago in Afghanistan. This comes despite the country ranking 177th out of 180 nations in Reporters Without Borders’ 2026 World Press Freedom Index.
CNN’s Sophia Saifi, Issy Ronald, Abbas Al Lawati, Monica Haider, Nadeen Ebrahim and Sophie Tanno contributed to this reporting.
What to know about the Houthis, the Iran-backed group in conflict with Saudi Arabia
Tensions between Saudi Arabia and Yemen’s Houthis escalated this week, after the Houthis carried out an attack on Saudi forces at a base in eastern Yemen, according to the group’s spokesperson, reportedly killing and wounding dozens in a flurry of attacks.
Here’s what to know about the Houthis:
Who they are
The Houthi movement, also known as Ansar Allah (Supporters of God), is one side of the Yemeni civil war. It emerged in the 1990s, when its leader, Hussein al-Houthi, launched “Believing Youth,” a religious revival movement for a centuries-old subsect of Shia Islam called Zaidism.
The Zaidis ruled Yemen for centuries but were marginalized under the Sunni regime that came to power after the 1962 civil war. Al-Houthi’s movement was founded to represent Zaidis and resist radical Sunnism, particularly Wahhabi ideas from Saudi Arabia. His closest followers became known as Houthis.
Yemen’s civil war began in 2014, when Houthi forces stormed the capital Sanaa and toppled the internationally recognized and Saudi-backed government. The conflict spiraled into a wider war in 2015 when a Saudi-led coalition intervened in an attempt to beat back the Houthis.
A ceasefire was signed in 2022, but it lapsed just after six months. Warring parties have not, however, returned to full-scale conflict.
Houthis’ allies
The Houthis are backed by Iran, which began increasing its aid to the group in 2014 as the civil war escalated and as its rivalry with Saudi Arabia intensified. Iran has provided the group with weapons and technology for, among other things, sea mines, ballistic and cruise missiles, and unmanned aerial vehicles, according to a 2021 report from the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
The Houthis form part of Iran’s so-called “Axis of Resistance” - an anti-Israel and anti-Western alliance of regional militias backed by the Islamic Republic.
How powerful is the group?
American officials have been tracking iterative improvements in the range, accuracy and lethality of the Houthis’ domestically produced missiles. Initially, home-grown Houthi weapons were largely assembled with Iranian components smuggled into Yemen in pieces, an official familiar with US intelligence told CNN previously.
They have previously used drones and anti-ship missiles to target commercial ships – some of which aren’t believed to be linked to Israel – prompting the USS Carney, a warship in the Red Sea, to respond to distress calls.
Yemen faces greatest risk of conflict since 2022 truce - UN special envoy
Yemen is facing its greatest risk of renewed conflict since the United Nations-brokered truce in April 2022, UN Special Envoy to Yemen Hans Grundberg said Friday. This is due to recent attacks by the Houthis targeting Saudi and Yemeni government forces as well as renewed attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.
He urged all parties to exercise maximum restraint, stop actions that encourage military retaliation and engage in negotiations.
His comments come as the Iran conflict is increasingly spilling over to other regional nations, with Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels launching a spate of attacks on United States’ allies.
The Houthis carried out an attack on Saudi forces at a base in eastern Yemen, the armed group’s spokesperson said Friday, targeting Saudi forces, warehouses, vehicles and military equipment at the Sahn al-Jinn camp, a major military base located north of the center of Marib city.
The war in Yemen dates back over a decade, and is primarily a conflict between the Houthi rebels and a Saudi-led coalition backing the internationally recognized government.
Iran marks "Journalist's Day" despite ranking near bottom of press freedom indexes
Iran is today marking Journalist’s Day, an event held annually to commemorate the death of a journalist working for the state news agency Islamic Republic News nearly 30 years ago in Afghanistan.
However, the event comes despite most of Iran’s media being tightly controlled by the state, with the country ranking 177th out of 180 nations in Reporters Without Borders’ 2026 World Press Freedom Index, meaning it is one of the worst countries globally for open access to information.
“Iran remains one of the world’s most repressive countries in terms of press freedom. The regime has intensified its crackdown and media blackouts since 2022 in response to protests and the 2026 US-Israeli offensive,” Reporters Without Borders said in the 2026 report.
The annual event was started after Mahmoud Saremi was killed during a Taliban attack on the Iranian consulate in Afghanistan on August 8, 1998. Several Iranian diplomatic personnel were also killed in the incident. Iran’s government holds annual formal ceremonies in Tehran to honor their memory.
The Islamic Public of Iran Army, the nation’s conventional armed forces, said in a statement today that “journalists are considered commanders on the front lines of the media battle against the enemy.”
Mohammed Qalibaf, Iran’s parliament speaker, said they are “combatants whose trench is awareness and whose weapon is truth,” Iran’s Fars news agency reported. “Journalists are not merely conveyors of news; their mission is to defend the psychological security, national identity, and cultural authority of a nation,” he added.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said that August 8 “commemorates the tireless efforts of the martyred journalist Mahmoud Saremi and other distinguished journalist martyrs.”
Saudi Arabia draws two of the region's most formidable military powers into its defense
Saudi Arabia has drawn two of the Muslim world’s most formidable military powers into its defense in a landmark NATO-style pact, as the Iran war moves closer to the kingdom.
Pakistan and Turkey signed a mutual defense pact with Saudi Arabia in Mecca on Friday, consolidating their longstanding security ties into a collective-defense alliance that stipulates an attack against any of them “shall be regarded as attack on them all.”
That commitment could draw Pakistan and Turkey into a war they have carefully kept at arm’s length.
The pact gives Saudi Arabia a powerful new layer of protection beyond its longstanding security partnership with the United States amid growing regional doubts over whether Washington can still be relied upon to protect its oil-rich Gulf allies.
Turkey has the second-largest military in NATO, behind only the US, while Pakistan is the only nuclear-armed Muslim nation.
Such powerful allies strengthen Saudi deterrence and present a united Sunni-led military front against a mounting Iranian threat, though a Turkish official told CNN the agreement isn’t directed against any specific actor and the Saudi foreign ministry insisted this “does not represent an effort to establish a military axis or a sectarian bloc.”
The pact also comes as Israel expands its military reach across the region and Riyadh’s relations with the neighboring United Arab Emirates fray.
Read our full analysis here for more on what this pact means for the region.
Iran warns mutual defense pact won't guarantee Saudi Arabia's security
Iranian officials have repeatedly warned that Saudi Arabia’s mutual defense pact with Pakistan and Turkey will not guarantee the kingdom’s security, attempting to downplay an agreement which strengthens Saudi deterrence and could serve as a warning to Tehran.
“Saudi rulers must know that just as America’s bases could not bring them security, clinging to America’s lackeys will not bring them security either,” Mahmoud Nabavian, a radical member of the Iranian parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, wrote on X.
That echoed earlier comments by fellow committee member Ebrahim Rezaei who said, “the Saudis should understand that a paper agreement with Turkey and Pakistan will not bring them security.”
The NATO-like pact between Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Turkey – three of the region’s most powerful actors – commits them to defend each other if one is attacked.
A Turkish official told CNN that the pact is “purely defensive” and is not directed against any specific actor. But it comes at a time when Saudi Arabia faces threats on multiple fronts; a Saudi official told CNN on Thursday the kingdom was braced for a major, coordinated assault by Iran-backed militias in Iraq and Yemen, supported by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
CNN’s Abbas Al Lawati and Gul Tuysuz contributed reporting.
Defense pact a significant turn in war, says former US ambassador
The signing of a mutual defense pact between Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan is “one of the more important developments of this war,” a former US ambassador has told CNN, saying it signals a loss of faith in US security guarantees in the region.
Stipulating that an attack against any one of the nations “shall be regarded as an attack against them all,” the pact reinforces how countries in the Middle East and beyond are reshaping their strategies and defenses after almost six months of war across the region.
Speaking to CNN’s Elex Michaelson, Christopher Hill pointed out that all three signatories are US allies.
“They all believe that the US is just not going to be there for them and it’s time to step up some regional efforts,” said Hill, a former assistant secretary of state and five-time US ambassador, most recently serving as Washington’s envoy to Serbia.
And the pact sheds light on the “degree to which the rest of the world is getting worried about how the US manages its interests and its issues,” he added.
“You do not see any fingerprints from the US on this,” Hill said.
“It’s one thing to be unpredictable, but I think we are becoming unreliable.”
Houthi official says orders for action against Saudis not coming from Iran
A member of the Iran-backed Houthis’ politburo told CNN late Friday night that the group does not need orders from Tehran to ramp up its conflict with Saudi Arabia.
Saudi aggression against the group – which controls a large swathe of western Yemen, including its capital Sanaa – is reason enough for military action against Riyadh’s forces, Nasr al-Din Amer said.
A Saudi economic and air blockade of Houthi-controlled territory has “created the world’s worst man-made humanitarian crisis,” he said.
“These reasons alone are sufficient to compel us to act more decisively than we have been doing. We do not need any other agendas,” Amer said.
A lifting of that blockade is necessary for the Houthis to stop military action against Saudi Arabia, he said.
Amer said strikes earlier this week against Saudi forces were preemptive, as Riyadh was preparing a ground invasion of Houthi territory.
On Thursday, the rebel group claimed to have carried out a “large-scale” military operation targeting Saudi troops with ballistic missiles and drones in several areas of the country.
The Houthis offered no evidence for the claim, but the Reuters news agency reported earlier that day that at least 30 Yemeni government troops were killed in Houthi attacks on military camps, citing government sources.
Some context: The Houthis are one of the strongest Iran-backed militias in the region. They entered the war in March, a month after Israel and the US attacked Iran, by firing missiles towards Israel.
But the Houthis have been at war with Saudi Arabia for more than a decade, after they seized Sanaa and surrounding territory from the Saudi-allied Yemen government.
Iran displays wreckage of downed US and Israeli aircraft
Iran is showing off some of the US and Israeli aircraft it has brought down during the almost six-month war in the Persian Gulf.
State-run Press TV posted images on social media Friday of the remnants of a US Air Force F-15E Strike Eagle fighter jet, several drones and what appear to be the engines of an MC-130J Commando special operations aircraft.
The F-15 and MC-130 wreckage are likely from the only incident where those two types of aircraft were lost in Iran. On April 3, an F-15 was hit by anti-aircraft fire and its crew of two ejected.
Both service members were eventually recovered by US Special Operations forces — but during the rescue operation, two of the four-engine MC-130s got stuck on a makeshift desert airstrip and had to be destroyed.
As for the drone wreckage on display, reports say the US lost a number of the unmanned aircraft during the war, but the Pentagon has not confirmed any specifics.
The reports from Press TV did not include the location of where wreckage is displayed, but it appears to be in a large underground bunker.
Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Turkey sign NATO-style defense pact. Here's where things stand
Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Turkey signed a mutual defense agreement on Friday, as Riyadh faces escalating attacks from Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels in recent days.
The agreement, signed in Mecca, sees Saudi Arabia draw two of the Muslim world’s most formidable military powers to its defense, transforming their longstanding security ties into a collective-defense alliance. The pact stipulates that it would treat an attack on any of the countries as an attack on all — similar to NATO’s Article 5 principle.
It comes as the Houthis on Friday carried out an attack on Saudi forces at a base in eastern Yemen, according to the group’s spokesperson.
Meanwhile, US sources told CNN that the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Gen. Dan Caine, has privately made clear that the US needs to find an off-ramp from the war with Iran — because the military options on the table to escalate the conflict could backfire.
Catch up on the day’s biggest developments here:
In Yemen:
- Escalating Houthi attacks: The group claimed responsibility for strikes in Yemen’s eastern Marib province. Earlier, Health Minister Qasim Buhaibeh said the shelling had killed at least two civilians and injured 14 others. In a separate attack the previous day, the group claimed responsibility for a “large-scale” operation on government military camps in two eastern provinces, reportedly killing 30 troops.
In Iraq:
- Iraqi militias postpone attacks: Iraqi Prime Minister Ali Faleh al-Zaidi met with Saudi Arabia’s intelligence chief Khalid bin Ali al-Humaidan on Friday to discuss security coordination and information sharing. Meanwhile, the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, a coalition of pro-Iran militias, delayed retaliatory attacks for deadly US-Saudi strikes on the country due to what it said was “honorable positions taken by some honorable political leaders.” On Thursday, a Saudi official told CNN that the kingdom was bracing for “multiple coordinated attacks” by Houthis and Iraqi militia.
In Iran:
- Warning over defense pact: Saudi Arabia’s mutual defense pact will not guarantee the kingdom’s security, a senior Iranian official warned. “The Saudis should understand that a paper agreement with Turkey and Pakistan will not bring them security, just as decades of one-sided dependence on the Americans failed to do so,” Ebrahim Rezaei, a member of the Iranian parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, said on X.
- Strait of Hormuz: Iranian lawmakers are waiting for “final approval” on a proposed framework agreement with Oman for shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, according to Iran’s state media. Iranian and Omani shipping routes through the waterway will remain in temporary use under an emerging agreement between the two countries before being replaced by a central course, Iran’s semi-official Fars News Agency reported on Friday.
CNN’s Abbas Al Lawati, Eyad Kourdi, Mitchell McCluskey, Aida Karimi, Sana Noor Haq and Issy Ronald contributed reporting to this post.
Why is there fighting in Yemen?
Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels claimed heavy strikes on government military camps in two eastern provinces this week, reportedly killing 30 troops.
The Houthis declared a “large scale” operation on Thursday with ballistic missiles and drones in several areas of Yemen, citing Saudi military buildups “aimed at escalating the aggression” in areas under their control. The group offered no evidence, but Reuters said at least 30 Yemeni government troops were killed by Houthi salvoes in Marib and Hadhramawt, citing government sources.
The latest attacks marked a spike in hostilities between the Houthis and the Saudi-backed, internationally recognized central government established in 2022 to unify fragmented factions against them.
The Houthis have been at war with a Saudi-led military alliance in Yemen since 2014.
Here’s what you need to know about the fighting in Yemen:
The civil war
In 2014, the Houthis stormed the north of the country and took over the capital, Sana’a. Saudi Arabia and the UAE intervened the following year, propping up the local government and militias under a unified vision of destroying the Houthis over years of civil war.
The Houthis gained momentum at home under Iran’s “Axis of Resistance,” receiving weapons and missile technology following the Arab Spring and evolving from an armed group in the 1990s into a fully fledged, Tehran-backed player.
A shaky truce
The Saudi-led military alliance and the Houthis agreed to a truce in 2022. However, rivalries then opened up between Yemeni factions, giving way to multiple spheres of influence and handing Iran expanded leverage on the southern flank of the Arabian Peninsula.
At the same time, Saudi Arabia held an economic and air blockade on Houthi-controlled swathes of Yemen, which the group has tried to break in recent weeks.
What now?
Yemen has been marked by years of internal divisions driven by ideological differences. Recurring violence has condemned millions of people to mass displacement, political instability and hunger, according to the UN.
Last month, the agency warned food insecurity was approaching “catastrophic levels,” even before the latest resurgence in violence linked to the ongoing conflict in Iran.
CNN’s Tim Lister and Nic Robertson contributed reporting.
