Iran has described the latest US response to its proposal for ending the war as "insufficient", as attacks on shipping in the Strait of Hormuz continue and Yemen's Houthi rebels strike Saudi Arabia, complicating efforts to calm the region.
Mohsen Rezaei, a former Revolutionary Guard commander who now heads Iran's Supreme National Security Council, said Tehran is no longer responding to Washington and that the United States must clarify certain issues. He said Washington has accepted some of Iran's seven conditions, while others remain unclear. Iran's delegation at the UN General Assembly last month proposed a sped-up deal echoing the memorandum of understanding that collapsed days after it was signed in June. That proposal was rejected, though the two sides remain in contact through mediators. Rezaei also warned that if intense fighting resumes, cables, data centers and AI facilities in the region would be destroyed, putting their value at more than $2 trillion. He alleged that US Central Command is running oil-smuggling operations in the strait, and he claimed Iran controls it.
Shipping incidents are mounting in the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway through which a large share of the world's energy supplies passes. The Guard's navy said a tanker carrying 750,000 barrels of crude struck a sea mine on Sunday after taking an "unauthorized" route, the third such vessel to catch fire since Saturday, according to Iranian media. It also warned that any ship turning off its navigation and identification systems would be treated as hostile. Separately, the British maritime trade authority reclassified an incident near Oman's port of Sohar as a drone attack on a tanker. India's shipping minister said two Indian sailors from the Petro Dolphin remain missing after nine of 11 crew were rescued.
The Houthis, who are backed by Iran, have claimed responsibility for daily strikes on King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh since Wednesday. Saturday's attack killed 12 people and wounded about 300, and a projectile later hit the same terminal again, causing injuries. Houthi spokesman Yahya Saree urged people to heed warnings about flying in Saudi airspace. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi phoned his Saudi counterpart, Prince Faisal bin Farhan, saying there is no military solution to the region's crises and offering to help start talks between Saudi Arabia and the Houthis. US President Donald Trump said he would reconsider America's role in Yemen and is weighing renewed strikes on Iran, a shift from his comment days earlier that none would come before the US midterm elections.
The diplomatic channel matters because Saudi-Iranian ties, restored under a 2023 Chinese-brokered deal, have survived despite strain. The US-Israel war on Iran began on February 28, and Iran and aligned forces have since hit US assets and Gulf energy infrastructure, including Saudi oil fields. With negotiations stalled over navigation in Hormuz and violence spreading, the risk of a wider confrontation remains high.