Al Jazeera

By Kristina Harazim and Zsombor Peter

    The head of Yemen’s presidential leadership council, ⁠Rashad al-Alimi, has ‌announced the start of major military operations to retake ⁠territory held by the Iran-backed Houthis.

    Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi says “there is no military solution” to the conflict with the US, but warns that Tehran remains ready to defend against any attacks.

    The UK Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) agency says a tanker was struck in the Strait of Hormuz while another off Yemen’s coast reported multiple explosions near the vessel.

    Israeli forces have killed at least three Palestinians in Gaza, including six-year-old Suha Mohammed Nasser, and another man in southern Syria.

Iran says oil flows through US-supervised route in Hormuz are ‘negligible’

    We have more from Ali Fadavi, the IRGC commander.

    He insisted in a televised interview that the Strait of Hormuz remained under Iran’s control and said the IRGC Navy has warned ships using the US-supervised southern route in the waterway that “their vessels may be targeted at any point”.

    Fadavi added that only three to four million barrels of oil per day are now moving through the route, which hugs the coast of Oman, and dismissed the amount as “negligible” when compared with pre-war traffic.

    He also rejected US threats of military action, saying Washington failed in Afghanistan and Iraq and will fail again.

    The comments came amid reports that crude oil exports from the Middle East have risen to pre-war levels, with countries exporting an average of 18.5 million bpd in the last week of September, using transits via the Strait of Hormuz and the Red Sea, as well as exports from terminals and ship-to-ship transfers in the Gulf of Oman.

Crude oil exports from Middle East exceed pre-war levels, data shows

    Crude oil exports from the Middle East rose above pre-war levels in four of the seven days of the last week of September, Reuters reports, citing provisional data from the ship-tracking firm Kpler.

    Reuters said crude exports from the region exceeded pre-war levels on September 24 and between September 27 and 29, rising to between 19.5 million barrels per day (bpd) and 22.5 million bpd.

    Exports had averaged 18 million bpd in the year before the US-Israel war on Iran began.

    The seven-day moving average for crude exports was at 18.5 million bpd on October 1, the data showed. These include transits via the Strait of Hormuz, the Red Sea, exports from terminals and ship-to-ship transfers in the Gulf of Oman.

    The increase comes amid a spike in tanker attacks in the Middle East, including seven incidents in the Strait of Hormuz, according to shipping intelligence firm Marisks. The UKMTO agency has also reported at least one attack a day in the Strait of Hormuz or the Gulf of Aden since October 2.

Iran summons Norway’s ambassador over Starlink operations

    Iran has summoned Norway’s ambassador in Tehran to protest what it called Oslo’s “continued inaction” over “unauthorised” Starlink satellite internet operations inside Iranian territory, according to the state-run Press TV.

    Mohammad Hassannejad Pirkoohi, director general at Iran’s Foreign Ministry, summoned Ambassador Paal Bjornestad on Sunday to deliver an official note of protest, it reported.

    During the meeting, Pirkoohi accused the US and Israel of systematically “abusing” Starlink, which is owned by American billionaire Elon Musk’s SpaceX, “to advance interventionist agendas” against Iran.

    He said Norway has failed to meet its legal obligations as the registering state for Starlink services at the UN’s International Telecommunication Union (ITU). “Based on the decisions of the ITU’s Radio Regulations Board (RRB) in recent years, the Norwegian government is obligated to take the necessary measures to prevent unauthorized Starlink transmissions within Iran’s territory,” he said.

    He added that Norway has ignored repeated Iranian requests “to stop the activities that compromise Iran’s national security and territorial sovereignty”.

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    Mousavian and former US diplomat Alan Eyre – both of whom were involved in previous negotiations on Iran’s nuclear programme – tell The Bottom Line that the conflict is not heading to a peace deal or even a “permanent stalemate” any time soon.

IRGC commander claims US forces have ‘fled’ 1,000km from Iran’s borders

    Rear Admiral Ali Fadavi, a top IRGC commander, says Iranian forces have forced the US military to pull back some 1,000km (621 miles) from Iran’s borders.

    “The Americans fled and moved more than 1,000km away from our borders. This was not their choice; it was due to the authority of the Islamic Republic and the authority of the IRGC Ground Force,” Fadavi said in a televised interview, according to Iran’s Press TV.

    He claimed that, for the first time, no US vessels were present in the Gulf, the Strait of Hormuz, the Sea of Oman or even the northern Indian Ocean, and said US warships are “100 percent vulnerable” to IRGC attacks.

    Fadavi’s claim comes as the US military continues to impose a punishing naval blockade on Iranian ports. US Central Command said last week that it has redirected 125 commercial vessels since July to “ensure strict compliance”.

US bombers at UK’s Fairford base were ‘out in the open’ and ‘vulnerable to drone attacks’

    David Des Roches, a professor at the Thayer Marshall Institute, says the Pentagon’s decision to remove its B-1 bombers from RAF Fairford in the UK “should have [been] done a while ago”.

    The base is at the centre of an alleged security incident in which five men were arrested nearby on suspicion of plotting an attack. Des Roches, a former Pentagon official, said the arrests “exposed a vulnerability” as the aircraft were “out in the open” and only about 300 yards (275 metres) from where the public could see them.

    “So they were very vulnerable to, say, drone attacks or other kind of mortar attacks,” he told Al Jazeera.

    Des Roches said the US Air Force has been “very slow to learn the lessons” from the Ukrainian drone attacks on Russia’s strategic bomber fleet in 2025, when Kyiv claimed to have destroyed some 40 Russian military aircraft.

    “We need to have overhead cover in some protection for these aircraft… Just a small drone or any kind of a drone with explosives on board could conceivably cause significant damage. We’ve seen that you can get to very close range of those,” he said.

    Des Roches acknowledged that the deployment of the US bombers means “you lose a little bit of operational ability,” but said that given the threat seen at Fairford, “we should have had overhead cover for all of our aircraft, globally, years ago”.

Yemen’s government calls for international help to defeat Houthis

    The foreign minister of Yemen’s internationally recognised government is asking the international community for more support to defeat the Houthis, saying it’s “in the world’s interest” for the country to be stable.

    “We call upon our brothers, friends, and the international community to support the Yemeni people, their state, and their national institutions in confronting the terrorist Houthi militia, which seizes their will by force of arms and lays waste to the lives of their sons — after exhausting all opportunities for de-escalation and peace,” Afrah Al-Zouba said in a post on X.

    “The danger posed by this militia and its crimes has transcended Yemen’s borders, and putting an end to its aggression and terminating its treacherous coup has become a shared national, regional, and international responsibility and interest that demands a firm stance and effective support.”

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    The attacks took place in Deir el-Balah and Khan Younis, while gunfire, drone attacks and artillery fire were also reported in parts of Gaza City and northern Gaza.

    The victims included a humanitarian worker coordinating aid deliveries and a six-year-old girl.

Houthi capabilities growing, forcing Yemeni forces and allies into ‘change in calculus’

    Ibrahim Jalal, a Yemeni defence analyst, says Yemen’s internationally recognised government and its allies face a rival in the Houthis that has transformed into a formidable force in recent years.

    The missile arsenal of the Houthis, the precision of their drones and their military “capabilities have grown” with support from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), he told Al Jazeera.

    And having joined the US-Israel war on Iran on their own timeline, the Houthis have reinforced their place in Tehran’s “axis of resistance” and given the IRGC a way to shift pressure from the Strait of Hormuz to Bab al-Mandeb in the Red Sea, he said.

    But the Houthis also have domestic goals, he said. After their lightning advance into Bab al-Mandeb, “they’re trying to secure their gains by controlling” key mountains and “isolating” the city of Taiz from the city of Aden, the Yemeni government’s interim capital, and the province of Lahij. This would increase the pressure on Aden and “allow an expansion of the territorial advance toward the economic centre of gravity” or the city of Marib.

    That city “has been under a less level of pressure but is likely to emerge eventually as the next centre of gravity”, he said.

    The Houthis’ strength and gains have prompted a “change in calculus” within the government and among its allies, Jalal said, as reflected in President Rashad al-Alimi’s announcement of a major new military operation.

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US removes B-1 bombers from UK Fairford base

    A Pentagon official has told Al Jazeera the US has removed all of its bomber aircraft from the UK’s Fairford airbase after five men were arrested on suspicion of plotting attacks on the facility.

    “While operational security precluded us from confirming the movement of our assets and forces in real-time, we can acknowledge now that all U.S. bombers that were deployed to RAF Fairford have re-deployed to their home stations in the United States,” the official said.

    “The Airmen that operate America’s bomber force, including B-1s, B-2s, and B-52s, remain ready to deliver precision global strike capabilities – including through operations that launch and recover from the continental United States – anywhere, anytime,” the official added.

    The five men arrested near the base have been released on bail, and Iran has denied any involvement in the alleged plot. UK investigators discovered petrol in the men’s vans, but found no explosive devices. Still, officials in the UK say they remain under investigation.

Saudi-led coalition vows to ‘restore the state and end the Houthi coup’ in Yemen

    Major-General Turki al-Maliki, a spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen, says the group continues to “provide full operational support” to Yemeni government forces to “restore the state and end the Houthi coup”.

    In a statement on X, al-Maliki condemned Houthis’ attacks on Yemen, Saudi Arabia and Saudi vessels in the Red Sea and the Bab al-Mandeb strait. He said Saudi Arabia would continue to defend its security and sovereignty, as well as regional and international security.

    The renewed hostilities are the most serious since a United Nations-brokered truce halted large-scale fighting in 2022.

A recap of recent developments

    The head of Yemen’s governing council, ⁠Rashad al-Alimi, has ‌announced the start of major military operations to retake ⁠territory held by the Iran-backed Houthis.

    Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi says “there is no military solution” to the conflict with the US, but that Tehran remains ready to return to war if attacked.

    Iran’s top negotiator, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, says Tehran has received a response from the US on its proposal to end the war but warns that the “era of wasting time and dictating unilateral demands are over”. He said the “Strait of Hormuz will not open until our seven conditions” are met.

    The United Kingdom’s Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) agency says a tanker was struck in the Strait of Hormuz, damaging its engine room, while another off Yemen’s coast reported multiple explosions near the vessel.

    Israeli forces have killed at least three Palestinians in Gaza, including six-year-old Suha Mohammed Nasser.

    Israeli forces have killed a man in southern Syria, as Jordan, Kuwait and Qatar condemned Israel’s violations in Syrian territory, including work on the Sufa 53 line, a military road in the Quneitra countryside.

    The first flight from Iran has landed in Iraq’s Najaf after a nine-day suspension, which followed US sanctions on Iranian airlines.