Houthis Ramp Up Attacks on Saudi Assets After Meeting With US Envoy 

Yemen’s Houthi forces on Thursday claimed to have fired a missile at a central oil facility in neighboring Saudi Arabia, the latest in a series of escalating attacks by the Iran-backed group against Saudi targets. According to a Houthi spokesman, a Quds-2 missile struck the Aramco oil production site in the Red Sea city of Jeddah early Thursday. Saudi officials have not commented on the reports. A similar attack was carried out in November 2020 and, since then, the Houthis have targeted other energy assets and Saudi civilian centers, including the capital Riyadh. On Wednesday, Reuters revealed senior United States officials, among them Yemen envoy Timothy Lenderking, secretly held their first direct meeting with Houthi representatives last week in Oman, as Washington attempts to diplomatically resolve the Yemeni conflict. President Joe Biden leveled sanctions against two Houthi military commanders this week, after last month removing the Shiite movement’s terror designation, slapped on the Houthis by former President Trump during his last day in office. The Houthis are battling a Saudi-led coalition for control of Yemen, in a seven-year civil war that has thrown the country into a major humanitarian crisis.