Hezbollah-affiliated Al-Akhbar reports Houthis preparing for possible escalation with Saudi Arabia, including renewed fighting along Saudi Arabia’s southern border.
The Houthi rebel group in Yemen is planning an escalation with Saudi Arabia, the Hezbollah-affiliated Al-Akhbar reported Thursday.
According to the report, the Houthis are also weighing the option of a ground invasion.
On July 20, Houthi leadership announced a naval blockade against Saudi Arabia in the Red Sea, framing the measure as a response to an alleged Saudi blockade on Yemen – an accusation Riyadh denies.
Regional volatility escalated further when Houthi spokespersons accused Saudi air forces of carrying out airstrikes against Sanaa International Airport. However, Yemen’s internationally recognized government accepted responsibility for the raid, maintaining that the action was executed to block an incoming Iranian aircraft.
In response, Houthi units fired retaliatory missiles into southwestern Saudi Arabia, targeting areas adjacent to Abha Airport.
DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — Israel struck an air base in northwest Syria early Tuesday, saying it aimed to prevent Turkish troops from deploying there.
Turkey, which has close ties with the Syrian government and has been providing assistance to Syria’s military, has tense relations with Israel. The rival countries have sought to curb each other’s influence in neighboring Syria.
Eight strikes hit the runway of the Abu Duhur air base in the northwestern province of Idlib, causing damage but no casualties, state TV said. Syria’s Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shibani told reporters in Damascus that Syria condemns the “Israeli aggression,” adding that the strikes were “an unjustified provocation, a violation of Syria’s sovereignty, and a direct threat to regional and global stability.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said in a statement that Israel had attacked the base because Syria had been “on the verge of breaching” an agreed-upon “status quo in security matters” by allowing Turkish troops to deploy there.
“Israel repeatedly warned Syria that such a deployment would pose a threat to Israel’s security. Syria chose to ignore these warnings,” the statement said.
The Foreign Ministry of Turkey condemned the attack in a statement and called for “the international community to take a more decisive stance to end Israel’s escalating aggression against Syria and to ensure accountability for these actions that disregard international law.”
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a war monitor, said foreign fighters used to stay at the base before they were recently asked to leave. The Observatory added that Turkey, which is a main backer of Syria’s government, has been rehabilitating the air base that had been out of service for years during Syria’s conflict that left nearly half a million people dead.
Tom Barrack, the U.S. ambassador to Turkey and special envoy to Syria, posted on X that Washington is “deeply concerned that the confirmed Israeli airstrikes” on the Abu Duhur air base constitute “an unnecessary escalation that does not advance regional stability.”
The government of Syria’s Interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa has neither “adopted a predatory posture nor maintained proxy forces” but has repeatedly indicated a preference for de-escalation with Israel, Barrack said.
The United States has in the past hosted, and will continue in the future to host, discussions to encourage diplomacy, Barrack added.
President seems to contradict Kushner who touted ‘robust’ talks with Iran a day earlier; Trump claims Strait of Hormuz open and de-mined, despite limited traffic amid fears of Iranian strikes
A map posted by US President Donald Trump, showing the Strait of Hormuz as a “New US Territory,” August 18, 2026. (Via Truth Social)
US President Donald Trump said Tuesday that no talks with Iran are under way or scheduled, as he posted a map showing the Strait of Hormuz as a new American territory in a fresh jibe at Tehran.
“There are no talks or conversations going on, or scheduled, with the Islamic Republic of Iran. The Naval Blockade remains in full force and effect,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social network.
A day earlier, Fox News said Trump had confirmed to the network that the US had a backchannel with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and that officials in Washington were speaking directly with IRGC officials.
On Monday, the president’s senior aide and son-in-law Jared Kushner spoke of “robust” conversations between the US and Iran, while acknowledging that Tehran wasn’t yet ready to make a deal that is satisfactory to Washington.
But on Tuesday, Trump denied the talks. He also wrote that the US blockade of Iran’s ports remained in place, and claimed that the Strait of Hormuz was “open and operating,” even though ship traffic is down dramatically compared to before the war.
Trump additionally declared that “all water mines have been removed or detonated,” though he has made a number of contradictory claims regarding whether or not mines were ever planted in the first place in the strait, a key waterway for the global supply of oil.
US President Donald Trump speaks as he meets with lifeguard Ryder Williams in the Oval Office of the White House, August 17, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
Separately, the US president posted a map on his Truth Social platform showing the Strait of Hormuz as “NEW U.S. Territory,” pressing his threat to claim sovereignty over the vital waterway.
It was unclear how serious Trump was about the move, as he has repeatedly issued sweeping threats against Tehran during the negotiation period that were not ultimately carried out.
Iran has effectively shut down the chokepoint, through which a fifth of the world’s oil transits, in retaliation for the war Trump started along with Israel in late February.
The American leader first raised the idea of a US takeover on Friday, saying he would soon declare it to be US territory. He revisited the idea again Monday in comments to reporters in the Oval Office, suggesting it would be a good idea.
Before the Iran war erupted on February 28, the Strait of Hormuz was an open, international waterway.
Iran says it will not reopen the strait until Washington meets a sweeping list of demands including ending the US blockade of Iran’s ports, lifting oil sanctions, freeing up frozen Iranian assets and paying war damages.
“I want to state clearly that the Strait of Hormuz will not be opened until the American commitments stipulated in the memorandum of understanding… are implemented,” Iran’s top negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said in a speech broadcast on state television.
