'No military solution' to Yemen conflict: Araghchi

TEHRAN, July 25: Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on Saturday there was no military solution to the escalating conflict between Saudi Arabia and the Tehran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen after both sides traded attacks.

"We believe that there is no military solution to the issue of Yemen, Bab al-Mandab, and other regional issues," said Araghchi in an interview published on Saturday by the state-run Iran Daily newspaper, calling for "dialogue".

He said the situation in Yemen "cannot be attributed to Iran" and that the incidents occurring in the area of the Bab al-Mandab Strait were "rooted in old disputes and issues between Yemen, Saudi Arabia and the countries of the region".

Renewed conflict between the Houthis in Yemen and Saudi Arabia -- which had largely been frozen since a UN-negotiated truce in 2022 -- flared up this month with the Tehran-backed rebels declaring a blockade of Saudi ports and claiming attacks on tankers.

The blockade has threatened Saudi Arabia's ability to get its supplies to the world following Iran's parallel blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, the kingdom's only other maritime route.

On Friday, a Houthi spokesman said the rebels were not blocking traffic through the Bab al-Mandeb Strait and that the maritime blockade "only affects the Saudi side".

Reuters adds, Air defence systems in Saudi Arabia intercepted two ballistic missiles from Yemen on Saturday targeting oil refineries in Yanbu, Greek security sources told Reuters, as Saudi Arabia and the Iran-aligned Houthis exchanged fire in a new front of the Iran war.

Late on Friday, the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen said it had struck Houthi military sites in the port city of Hodeidah linked to attacks on shipping by the group, which has declared a naval blockade of Saudi Arabia.

Houthi leader Abdul Malik al-Houthi said last week that all Saudi oil and other vital facilities would be targets for the group's missiles and drones if Riyadh escalated its involvement in the conflict.

There were no immediate official reports of damage, and Saudi state oil giant Aramco did not respond to requests for comment on the incidents.

Reuters verified video shared on social media of a large column of smoke rising from the direction of the Saudi Aramco refinery in Jizan. Two Asia-based trading sources said that they had been informed of some damage at the site.

The Houthis had previously attacked both Yanbu and Jizan in the years before striking a U.N.-brokered ceasefire with Saudi Arabia in 2022 that held until this month. �"AGENCIES