Saudi Arabia Confirms Its Key Oil Pipeline Was Shut Down After Attack, as Diesel Hits Record $6 a Gallon

Since Houthi forces seized the Red Sea island of Perim and the port of Mokha earlier this week, Saudi Arabia's alternative to the blockaded Strait of Hormuz has taken a direct hit of its own.

A Saudi energy ministry official told the state-run SPA news agency on Friday that the East-West pipeline was "subjected to several attacks on Thursday morning" in the Riyadh and Medina regions, and was "stopped as a precaution" after the strikes injured a number of people, according to CBS News. Saudi authorities did not say who was responsible. CBS News reported multiple outlets indicate the Iran-backed Houthis were behind the attack, but that attribution has not come from Riyadh itself.

The pipeline matters because it is Saudi Arabia's backup plan. Built in the 1980s during the Iran-Iraq war for the same reason it exists today, the 750-mile line carries 5 to 7 million barrels a day from the Abqaiq fields to the Red Sea port of Yanbu, letting Saudi oil dodge the Strait of Hormuz entirely, according to CBS News. Before the current war, roughly 20 million barrels a day moved through Hormuz. Losing the pipeline, even temporarily, removes a big chunk of Saudi Arabia's remaining flexibility right as the Houthi advance along the Yemeni coast threatens the other end of that workaround, the Bab el-Mandeb Strait.

Diesel hits $6, but stocks bounce back

The pressure showed up at the pump. CBS News reported diesel hit a record $6 a gallon in the U.S. on Friday. That's a direct hit on trucking, farming and shipping costs nationwide.

Despite that, Wall Street had a better day. CBS News reported U.S. stocks rebounded Friday, clawing back much of the week's losses after Brent crude eased back under $105 a barrel, having neared $110 overnight. A Friday inflation report showing consumer prices up 3.4% year-over-year, close to economists' expectations, helped calm markets even though CBS noted prices are still rising faster than anyone wants.

The volatility captures the split screen investors are watching: a shooting war disrupting two of the world's most important maritime chokepoints, against a market trying to price in exactly how bad it will get.

Trump declined to strike, according to Breitbart's sourcing

Breitbart reported, citing Axios, that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman personally called President Trump twice this week urging U.S. airstrikes against the Houthis as they overran Mokha and Perim. Trump reportedly declined, in part because his administration doesn't want to get pulled deeper into Yemen's 12-year civil war and wants U.S. forces focused on Iran and the Strait of Hormuz, Breitbart reported.

Fox News quoted a senior administration official on background saying the U.S. is "focused on protecting our core national security interests — such as ensuring freedom of navigation in the Red Sea — while empowering our regional partners to take the lead in managing and resolving regional security challenges."

A Yemeni military official told the Associated Press, as reported by Breitbart, that his government was "stunned" the Saudi air force didn't strike the Houthis as they advanced on Mokha, and suspected Riyadh needed U.S. approval it never got. Yemen's forces are losing ground fast, and the ally with the most airpower in the region held back. Trump's stated reasoning is that widening U.S. involvement in a Yemeni civil war carries its own risks and costs, separate from the Iran fight itself.

Tehran keeps taunting Bessent

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi continued sparring publicly with U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Friday, according to CBS News, after Bessent unveiled sanctions Tehran has likened to an "economic D-Day." Araghchi wrote on X that Bessent "stands powerless and exposed as the world loses belief in the U.S. financial system," posting a chart of U.S. 30-year Treasury yields, which CBS reported hit their highest level since 2004 on Friday.

Where coverage splits

Al Jazeera's framing pushes back on outlets treating the Houthi coastal sweep as a total shift in power, arguing the group has been able to threaten Bab el-Mandeb shipping since 2023 and that this week's gains mainly consolidate control it already had. BBC and Fox News lean harder into the chokepoint-squeeze angle, quoting analyst Hisham al-Omeisi (also transliterated Al-Omeisy) telling both outlets that Iran and its proxies now bracket the Arabian Peninsula on both ends. Both readings are supported by the reporting; they differ on emphasis, not on the underlying facts.

Yemen's foreign minister, Afrah Al-Zouba, has asked the U.N. Security Council for an emergency session on the shipping threat, according to the Epoch Times, citing Yemeni state media. No date for that meeting has been confirmed in the reporting so far, and no U.S. or Saudi retaliatory strike on the Houthis' new coastal positions has been announced as of Friday.