Yemen's Houthis claim attack on Aramco oil facility in Saudi Arabia, and other Middle East news

People walk in Tehran's traditional main bazaar, Iran, Saturday, Aug. Vahid Salemi/AP hide caption Yemen's Houthis said they attacked an oil facility Sunday in southwestern Saudi Arabia, the latest attack by the Iranian-backed rebels on the kingdom. Meanwhile, Iran has made new demands about the restart of negotiations and the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, and the Pentagon is pressing the U.S. defense industry to accelerate production of weapons. Yahya Saree, a military spokesperson for the Houthis, said they targeted an Aramco refinery in the city of Jazan with a drone. The attack was in response to Saudi drones' breaching Yemen's airspace over the provinces of Hajjah and Saada, he said.

Missing media or need the complete publisher report? Open NPR News

Scoop News DeskYemen · Published Sunday, August 9, 2026 at 9:44 AM UTCUpdated Sunday, August 9, 2026 at 9:55 AM UTC

Scoop News reporting summary

The text below was supplied by the Scoop Newsroom app. Third-party reporting is attributed in the source panel.

Iran's state broadcaster published the statement by the council's secretary, Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr, who is also a commander in the powerful Revolutionary Guard. Speaking to reporters in Tehran on Sunday, Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi said an "exchange of messages through intermediaries" is continuing with the United States, but that doesn't constitute negotiations. "From our perspective, negotiations cannot resume until the violations of the memorandum of understanding have ended and the United States has remedied the provisions of the memorandum that it violated," he said.