Israel rejects Trump’s Gaza deal, insists on disarmament of Hamas
Israel rejected a Gaza deal announced by US President Donald Trump, insisting no withdrawal until Hamas is disarmed. Meanwhile, Yemen’s Houthi rebels attacked Mokha port and a Saudi Aramco refinery, raising fears of renewed civil war. Separately, Iran and Oman discussed managing the Strait of Hormuz, with Tehran signalling restrictions on “hostile” nations’ vessels.
Sanaa: 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 from the key waterway.
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. They also said they attacked an oil facility in neighbouring Saudi Arabia.
Here’s a look at developments across the Middle East. Full coverage can be found here.
Netanyahu insists on 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, which has been largely destroyed.
“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
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 the Houthi attack on the port of Mokha.
Fayed al-Noman, the information ministry’s assistant undersecretary, said the rebels fired missiles and drones, severely damaging 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 channel.
Mokha is a main port under Yemen’s internationally recognised government and has been renovated to handle shipping that avoids the Houthi-held port of Hodeida.
The Houthis claimed the attack, saying 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.
Details emerge about a potential Iran-Oman deal
Iran and Oman, which bracket the Strait of Hormuz, are working to finalise 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 authorised 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 strait, crucial to global supplies of oil and natural gas, was considered an international waterway before the war.
The two people said the deal is endorsed by Gulf Cooperation Council members and is expected to be jointly announced by Iran, Oman, the United States and the UN’s International Maritime Organisation. But they stressed the terms could change before the deal is final.
Iran on Sunday signalled progress on a plan to manage the strait, but a lawmaker said transits by vessels belonging to “hostile countries” would be prohibited.
Parliament’s National Security Committee approved “general outlines,” the state broadcaster reported. It cited a member of parliament’s presiding board as saying countries that have “caused damage” to Iran cannot transit until they compensate for it. There were no further details.
Semiofficial outlets Fars and Tasnim cited the lawmaker as saying the plan was under expert review and that the US and Israel were among the “hostile countries.”
Iran says negotiations cannot resume’ until conditions are met
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told reporters that negotiations with Oman about “new maritime routes” 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.”
Iran’s powerful Supreme National Security Council on Saturday said the strait will not reopen until the US “corrects its behaviour.” 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 US military from the area. The US also must “completely compensate” Iran for war damage, lift sanctions and “unconditionally” release frozen assets.
Araghchi also 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.
The US Central Command has said its blockade had redirected 53 commercial vessels, disabled two and boarded two through Saturday.
Pentagon seeks boost in weapons production
Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell on Saturday said the department was focused on boosting munitions acquisitions to provide “the weapons our warfighters need at the pace the threat demands.”
The war with Iran has used up more of the US military’s already diminished stockpiles of advanced missile interceptors, says a new analysis from the Centre for Strategic and International Studies. The shortage has caused concern among allies like Ukraine and Taiwan, who seek more US military support.
Parnell’s statement said the push was part of a broader modernisation effort that predated the war that began with US and Israeli attacks on Feb. 28.
