Saudi drone attack exposes lingering tensions in Mideast

Cairo, July 29:

Saudi Arabia said it had shot down drones fired by Iran-backed militias in Iraq that had targeted its petroleum facilities. Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen meanwhile claimed to have attacked Saudi oil facilities as part of a separate but related conflict.

It was unclear if they referred to the same attack. Neither the US nor Iran reported carrying out any attacks for three days, a respite after about two weeks of sustained bombardments that led to increasing fears of a return to all-out war.

“We’re having good talks, so we’ll see what happens,” Trump told reporters Monday on Air Force One. “I think there’s a good chance that something could happen. And if it does, good. if it doesn’t, we go back to doing what we were doing two days ago.”

Regional officials cite progress in talks

One of the regional officials who spoke to AP on Monday described the progress made in mediation efforts as “significant.” He said mediators were working with Iran and Oman on a mechanism for managing vessels’ transit through the Strait of Hormuz, the flashpoint for the latest strikes and counterstrikes.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Esmail Baghaei, said during a news conference in Tehran on Monday that “mediators may convey messages to us from the American side” but that there were no direct negotiations. He said Iran and Oman, which lies on the other side of the Strait of Hormuz, talked Friday and Saturday on how to manage ship traffic through the waterway.

Tehran has asserted that the interim deal with the US allows it to manage shipping on the waterway and potentially charge fees, and it has objected to US efforts to support an alternative route that passes close to Oman. The strait was open to all without fees before the war.

The US military on Monday said its recently reimposed naval blockade against Iran continued, with 17 commercial ships redirected, two disabled and two boarded.

Mediators have achieved progress in getting the United States and Iran back to negotiations, regional officials said Monday, after both sides paused attacks following a period of rapidly escalating tensions. But scattered attacks by armed groups across the region underscored the lingering tensions.

Commercial shipping traffic in the Strait of Hormuz was at a three-week low, a maritime body overseen by the U.S. Navy said Sunday, adding that no new attacks had been confirmed in the past 72 hours. It said traffic remained steady through Bab el-Mandeb.