The authorities of Saudi Arabia confirmed this Friday that the East-West pipeline was the subject of several attacks on Thursday, in an infrastructure that crosses the Arabian Peninsula towards Bahrain and Qatar without passing through the Strait of Hormuz, under Iranian control.
According to a source from the Saudi Ministry of Energy cited by the official agency SPA, the pipeline "in the regions of Riyadh and Medina, suffered several attacks on the morning of Thursday, September 10," which caused "some" injuries that "received medical attention."
After the incidents, and as a "precautionary" measure, the operation of the pipeline was temporarily interrupted while technical and emergency teams were sent to ensure its safety and review possible damages.
The specific origin of the attacks has not been made public, but they occur in a context of strong tension in Yemen, where Houthi rebels have led a rapid offensive and on the same Thursday took strategic positions around the Strait of Bab el Mandeb, amid an escalation of confrontations in recent weeks. Riyadh supports the forces of the internationally recognized Yemeni government.
The authorities based in Aden have directly pointed to Tehran, denouncing a "clear link between this escalation and Iran's strategy of shifting the cost of international pressure onto others," as stated by the president of the Presidential Leadership Council, Rashad al Alimi.
The Strait of Bab el Mandeb, which separates the Arabian Peninsula from the Horn of Africa, is about 29 kilometers wide. Control of enclaves in this strip of Yemen would allow the Houthis — a group supported by Iran, despite their ideological and organizational differences — to threaten maritime traffic even with their artillery means.
The Houthis have repeatedly warned that they could affect navigation in Bab el Mandeb in response to the Israeli-American offensive, after carrying out numerous attacks against ships in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden in retaliation for Israel's offensive on the Gaza Strip following the attacks of October 7, 2023.