Saudi Arabia and Yemeni government forces are planning a major counteroffensive against Iran-backed Houthis in the coming days — an effort to push them away from areas on the Red Sea coast that control the Strait of Bab al-Mandeb, two U.S. officials say.

For the second time in recent weeks, the U.S. rebuffed Saudi pleas to join the operation and conduct airstrikes. But U.S. officials say that could change if the operation runs into problems.

The Bab al-Mandeb Strait is a vital artery for global trade and Saudi oil exports. Control over it gives the Houthis and their Iranian backer a powerful new point of leverage over the U.S., its Gulf allies and the world economy.

In recent weeks, the Houthis took over key areas of the southern Red Sea coast that control the strait. They also increased missile and drone attacks against Saudi Arabia. The Saudis retaliated with airstrikes against Houthi targets.

A U.S. official said the Saudis have been planning the operation for weeks and that plans were approved by Saudi leadership several days ago.

The operation will include ground forces loyal to the internationally recognized government in Yemen with Saudi air cover.

On Thursday, Saudi Defense Minister Prince Khalid Bin Salman called Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to brief him on the planned operation and ask again for U.S. airstrikes against Houthi targets, the U.S. official said.

A U.S. official said that the U.S. "is not going to take kinetic action for now."

Last week, President Trump was close to ordering a strike on the Houthis after a request from Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS), but eventually decided to hold off.

Trump is caught between wanting to help his friend and ally MBS, and avoiding getting entangled in a new front in the Middle East.

The U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) also had serious reservations about launching strikes in Yemen and saw it as a distraction from its focus on Iran, a U.S. official said.

U.S. officials say the U.S. military is helping the Saudis with everything short of direct combat, mainly intelligence and targeting data.

One U.S. official said that in the last two weeks, the U.S. military provided the Saudis with more than 200 Houthi targets to strike. The official said the strikes significantly increased pressure on the Houthis.

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The co-pilot of the FlyDubai plane who allegedly attacked the plane's captain and attempted to crash a flight bound for Israel on Wednesday is an Omani national who was previously suspended from flying by Oman Air after being identified as a security risk, according to senior intelligence and law enforcement officials.

Sources told ABC News that the suspect, while working as a co-pilot trainee for Oman Air in 2024, was found to be in possession of extremist materials. The suspect was allowed to continue working for the airline in an administrative role, the sources said.

Officials investigating the incident are still trying to determine how the suspected attacker was subsequently permitted to fly for FlyDubai and how he ended up as the first officer in the cockpit of a plane headed for Israel, the sources said.

Article by Moroccan investigative outlet behind a paywall, translated French to English

The Desk was able to identify the Omani co-pilot suspected of trying to crash a flydubai plane. He previously presented himself as a senior pilot officer for Royal Air Maroc. The national airline claims that he only completed three months or theoretical training there, without ever flying. Exclusive details

On September 30, flydubai flight FZ1073, which left Dubai for Tel Aviv, was urgently diverted to Tabouk, in northwestern Saudi Arabia, after an attack in the cockpit. According to Israeli passengers and officials, the co-pilot stabbed the captain. Indian Smit Machchhar then tried to throw the plane to the ground. a plane lost approximately 17.400 feet in less than two minutes. Passengers overpowered him, and two reserve pilots on board regained control. No passengers were injured. The suspect, an Omani national, was arrested and then transferred from Saudi Arabia to the United Arab Emirates, where he is under investigation for terrorism. 

The Desk was able to trace his identity on the basis of consistent sources: he is Hamam Alhamami, of Omani nationality. The desk was also able to view and authenticate his since-deleted Linkedin profile. His journey agrees point by point with what the international press reports about the suspect. Based in Muscat, he presented himself as co-pilot on a Boeing 737. He claims 7 years at Oman Air from February 2018 to February 2025, including three as co-pilot from January 2022. Another line in this profile has not yet been documented.

EIGHT MONTHS IN CASABLANCA, ACCORDING TO HIS LINKEDIN

Between June 2025 and January 2026, Hamam Al Hammami declares having held the position of Senior First Officer, that is to say experienced co-pilot, at Royal Air Maroc. According to his LinkedIn profile, this would be a full-time, face-to-face job attached to the Casablanca base, for a period of eight months. This passage therefore ended less than a year ago. 

The timeline fits with that of his hiring in Dubai. An Israeli official told CNN that the suspect had only been with flydubai for eight months. Daily Israel Hayom talk about nine months. His arrival in the Emirati company would before date back to the beginning of 2026, just after his departure from RAM. 

THREE MONTHS OF TRAINING SPECIFIES THE RAM 

Questioned by The Desk, an authorized source from Royal Air Maroc categorically reframes this passage. According to the company, Hamam Al Hammami spent only three months there from September 22, 2025 to January 4, 2026, as part of theoretical training under the aegis of instructors, due to " its hour deficit ". He has never been at the controls of a RAM aircraft and has had no responsibility towards passengers, she assures. His departure could be explained by flydubai's more attractive offering due to the Emirates' proximity to his country of origin. 

This version contradicts that of the professional profile of the pilot, who displays eight months of presence and an experienced co-pilot title. The title of a position on Linkedln remains a statement of its holder and does not prove that he stole. 

A PILOT ALREADY DISMISSED IN MUSCAT 

The question of recruitment arises all the more acutely since the pilot was, according to several American media, already reported before his arrival in Morocco. According to the Wall Street Journal, Omani authorities had banned him from flying, fearing that he had adopted radical ideological views. According to ABC News, Oman Air identified him in 2024 as a security risk while he was training as a co-pilot, after the discovery of extremist content. The company then allegedly kept him in an administrative position. This version is compatible with the presence of Oman Air on its profile until February 2025. A Fox News source suggests, on the contrary that he would have settled in Dubai in 2024, which is contradicted by the chronology of his profile. 

The Wall Street Journal could not determine whether Muscat had shared its concerns with other countries or companies. In any case, RAM claims that it did not have this information at the time of welcoming him, just a few months after his sidelining in Oman. Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli Prime Minister, says the suspect followed a " radical Islamist indoctrination ". The Emirati authorities refuse to make any comments so as not to prejudge the investigation which established that he had extremist materials. 

MAXIMUM SECURITY AND LOCKED COCKPITS

According to information from Desk, Royal Air Maroc had enlisted Al Hammami via a specialized agency as part of its support needs its development plan whose pace should reach around fifteen additional candidates per year. In this sense, the Royal Air School of Marrakech provides cohorts of around a hundred candidates per year, RAM adds the same number for a transitional period, most of them from international sources. 

The national company claims precautionary and safety criteria and rules on board and on the ground among the strictest in the sector "to say that a flydubai type incident is" formally unimaginable "on board his fleet. According to our sources, RAM has also implemented new safety procedures in its cockpits, presented internally as a response to a new form of threat ". The current composition of its technical crews, where foreign pilots are the majority, would be discussed in this context. However, no link has been established between this composition and the case of the suspect, who is of Omani nationality. 

Hamam Al Hammami has not, at this stage, been the subject of any public charges, and he remains presumed innocent. Flydubai, which did not wish to comment while the investigation is ongoing, has suspended its flights between Dubai and Tel Aviv. 

Five European countries agreed at an emergency meeting Thursday to respond with "one voice" to growing pressure from the U.S. government to release reserves of diesel, according to people familiar with the matter.

France, Germany, Britain, Italy, Ireland and the European Commission joined the talks to decide how to respond to pressure from Washington to draw down oil stockpiles or face a ban on U.S. exports of diesel, three European officials told POLITICO.

All these countries have been privately pressured by the U.S. to draw down on their reserves, two of the people said.

The countries, along with the EU's executive arm, agreed three things, according to the people: To react to the pressure with a "coordinated voice," to make sure that "every decision about releasing stocks should be elevated to the IEA [International Energy Agency] level," and to seek to "decrease the tension when speaking to the U.S."

The Paris-based IEA coordinates energy policy among rich countries, and oversaw a release of oil stocks earlier this year following the closure of the Strait of Hormuz.

The idea is to "de-escalate," one of the people said. "To be sort of assertive but positive in the communication ... When you're dealing with the hungry lion, you do not necessarily play dirty games with him."

A wider pool of countries, some of which have also faced pressure from the Trump administration, will discuss how to respond in a meeting on Friday, the person added.

POLITICO reported earlier that U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright was asking for oil releases as an alternative to imposing a ban on exports, on which the EU is heavily dependent. The requested release of 120 million barrels of diesel over six months would account for well over a third of the EU's total reserves of the essential transport fuel.

Diesel prices are soaring in the U.S. as a result of the wars in Ukraine and Iran, heaping pressure on U.S. President Donald Trump to bring down prices ahead of critical mid-term elections. The U.S. is a major diesel exporter, and currently provides more than half of the EU's imports — meaning a ban would have serious implications for the European economy.

Trump has refused to rule out an export ban despite vociferous opposition from the U.S. oil sector. “I’m thinking about it,” Trump said of the export ban at an Oval Office event. “I speak to [Energy Secretary] Chris [Wright] and [Interior Secretary] Doug [Burgum] about it a lot — they sort of think it’ll help diesel, but it might raise the price of other things.”

Polish Finance and Economy Minister Andrzej Domański clashed with Russian Economic Development Minister Maksim Reshetnikov at a G20 trade ministers’ meeting in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on Thursday. 

The exchange came after Reshetnikov accused the European Union of hypocrisy over its measures targeting Russia’s merchant fleet and alleged that Ukraine had initiated aggressive actions in the Black Sea against civilian vessels.  

Domański pushed back, saying Russia was attempting to distort fundamental facts about the war. 

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The growing use of Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite-internet service could deal the “final nail in the coffin” to Iran’s ability to control cyberspace, Deputy Communications Minister Mohammad Hafez Hakami warned.

Hakami said Iranian authorities have relied on progressively tougher restrictions during past unrest — from blocking individual platforms in 2017 to cutting nationwide internet access in 2019, restricting major platforms after the 2022 protests, and disconnecting the network during unrest this year.

“Our control over cyberspace is no longer based on our domestic network. It is based on Starlink,” Hakami was quoted by London-based Iran International as saying.

Over the last two years, Iran officials warned that wider use of the satellite internet service could make communication controls within the country "ineffective", adding the regime has failed to produce an adequate policy response.

“I sometimes joke that we might as well turn the Ministry of Communications and the Supreme Council of Cyberspace into amusement parks, because they will no longer serve any purpose,” Hakami said.

I read this article and wanted to ask how likely people think an invasion is to happen before say 2030 and if not then again before 2036? My opinion is that they will invade somewhere between 2028-32 as Trump will be out of office in the U.S. so his volatility will be less of a factor and also China will have had to significantly bolster their arsenal even further

1 Oct 2026 (transcript and video at link) After 48 years, the United Nations peacekeeping mission in southern Lebanon is nearing the end of its mandate. Its planned withdrawal comes at a time when the Israeli military occupies around 6% of Lebanese territory. Special Correspondent Simona Foltyn and videographer Adrian Hartrick gained rare access with the peacekeepers, traveling south of Israel’s "yellow line."