Tel Aviv, Aug 10:
Israel on Sunday rejected a deal announced by US President Donald Trump for Gaza. Details emerged on the potential deal between Iran and Oman on managing the Strait of Hormuz as Tehran suggested that vessels linked to “hostile countries” would be barred.
US reviews proposal to end 60-day grace period for foreign workers to find new jobs
Meanwhile, Yemen’s Iranian-backed Houthi rebels struck a government-held port on the country’s Red Sea coast, deepening fears over threats to strategic shipping routes and a potential return to civil war.
Here’s a look at developments across the Middle East. Full coverage can be found here.
Netanyahu insists no Gaza withdrawal until Hamas disarms
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dismissed the deal on Gaza announced by Trump last month, saying Israel’s military “will not carry out any withdrawal until Hamas is genuinely disarmed.”
Netanyahu told a Cabinet meeting that “Israel rejects the 15-point document” but is still discussing plans for Gaza with Washington, after making similar comments last week. Trump had said Israeli forces would withdraw as the Hamas militant group’s disarmament is completed. Israeli forces control over half the Palestinian enclave of about 2 million people that’s been largely destroyed.
There was no immediate White House comment on Netanyahu’s statement.
“We remain committed to the road map,” said a member of the Hamas political bureau, Bassem Naim, adding that the group expects mediators and the US to pressure Netanyahu — who also faces domestic tensions as he struggles to hold onto power ahead of the next elections scheduled for Oct. 27.
The Hamas-led attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, sparked the war in Gaza. A fragile ceasefire continues.
Houthis target Aramco refinery and Red Sea port
Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen attacked the government-held port city of Mocha late Sunday night. It was the second attack on the Red Sea coast city in less than 24 hours.
A Houthi military source told the Houthi-controlled Al-Masirah TV that the attack targeted weapons depots and Saudi troop concentrations.
A statement from the Yemeni Armed Forces posted on X said residential neighbourhoods were targeted by ballistic missiles and drones in the attack, and that air defense systems managed to intercept some of the drones.
Drones and missiles were also used during the earlier attack on Sunday. The Yemeni government-allied National Resistance Forces said at least seven people four troops and three civilians were killed and 15 civilians were injured in that strike.
Fayed al-Noman, the information ministry’s assistant undersecretary, said the attack severely damaged port buildings and piers as well as commercial goods and food supplies. The military later said missiles landed in several areas, including near a television station.
Mokha is a main port under Yemen’s internationally recognized government and has been renovated to handle shipping that avoids the Houthi-held port of Hodeida.
The Houthis said they targeted military forces and warehouses.
Yahya Saree, a Houthi military spokesperson, said they also targeted an Aramco refinery in the Saudi city of Jazan with a drone in response to Saudi drones’ breaching Yemen’s airspace over Hajjah and Saada provinces.
The Saudi Energy Ministry reported a fire at a facility belonging to the Aramco refinery, with no casualties. The ministry did not say the cause. The attacks threaten to reignite Yemen’s civil war after a 2022 truce.
Iran named a new head of its powerful Supreme National Security Council, state media reported. Mohsen Rezaei had been a military adviser to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei and a former Revolutionary Guard commander.
It was the latest shuffle at the top for the politburo-like body, which has a range of political opinions and rivalries and is adapting to the loss of several senior officials in the war.
Rezaei replaces Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr, who took up the role after Ali Larijani was killed by an Israeli strike in March. Zolghadr will become a political adviser to Khamenei.
Rezaei earlier this month said Iran will never allow an unauthorized route through the Strait of Hormuz, which was considered an international waterway before the war and Tehran’s assertion of control.
Iran says negotiations cannot resume’ until conditions met
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told reporters that negotiations with Oman about “new maritime routes” on the Strait of Hormuz were in the final stages but “this, however, does not mean that the Strait of Hormuz will reopen.” That step requires conditions that “have been conveyed through intermediaries.”
The Supreme National Security Council on Saturday said the strait will not reopen until the US “corrects its behavior.” It demanded that the US never threaten Iran again, a permanent end to the war with Iran and its armed allies, a lifting of the naval blockade of Iranian ports and a withdrawal of the US military from the area. The US also must “completely compensate” Iran for war damage, lift sanctions and “unconditionally” release frozen assets.
The United States did not comment on the demands. Trump on Sunday asserted to Axios that “we are only semi-negotiating” with Iran and letting economic pressures take their toll.
Araghchi said an “exchange of messages through intermediaries” continues with the US but that doesn’t constitute negotiations, which he said can’t resume until violations of the interim deal end and the US “has remedied” provisions it violated.
Iran and Oman, located on the other side of the Strait of Hormuz, are working to finalize a temporary deal that would reopen it, with ships entering near Iran and exiting near Oman, according to two people familiar with the talks who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly. Ships would transit without paying fees or tolls during the interim period.
The agreement is designed to restore the separate interim deal between the US and Iran. The two people said the agreement is endorsed by Gulf Cooperation Council members and is expected to be jointly announced by Iran, Oman, the US and the UN’s International Maritime Organization. But they stressed the terms still could change.
The Iranian parliament’s National Security Committee approved “general outlines” of a plan to manage the strait, the state broadcaster reported, but a lawmaker said transits by vessels belonging to “hostile countries” would be prohibited. The member of parliament’s presiding board said countries that have “caused damage” to Iran cannot transit until they compensate for it. There were no further details.