A crew member was killed after an Iranian commercial ship was attacked near the Strait of Hormuz early on Sunday, Iranian media reported.
There has been no statement so far from the US military, which has previously struck Iranian vessels to enforce its blockade of the country's ports.
The attack could deepen the disruption to maritime activity in the vital waterway caused by the US-Israeli war on Iran.
Tensions in the region have grown since Saudi Arabia temporarily closed its East-West pipeline, which it had been using to bypass the closure of the Hormuz, following a drone attack that Riyadh claimed originated in Iraq. The escalation has sparked fears of a further rise in energy prices, with the benchmark Brent crude surging above $100 a barrel last week.
Meanwhile, the Houthis in Yemen said they had fired drones and missiles towards southern Saudi Arabia, putting new pressure on a key US ally in the region. Saudi civil defence said sirens went off in the country's south on Saturday but did not report any damage or casualties.
Britain’s Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband said on Saturday he had spoken with Saudi counterpart Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud this morning and discussed Houthi aggression in Yemen and attacks against Saudi Arabia.
He added that the United Kingdom "stands firmly with Saudi Arabia and the internationally recognised government of Yemen against these attacks."
An Iranian commercial vessel was struck off southern Iran early on Sunday, killing one person and wounding three others, Iranian state media reported, citing the governor of Qeshm County.
As global shipping becomes even more challenged, Iran said a regional meeting is planned Monday between the foreign ministers of Gulf countries about talks between Tehran and Oman – located on the other side of the Strait of Hormuz – on managing shipping there.
Commercial ship traffic remains low on what had been considered an international waterway before the war. Iran has expressed interest in having ships pay fees for transit.
It has said traffic into the Persian Gulf would pass through Iranian waters, while the outbound route would pass partly through Iranian waters and partly through Oman’s.
But Iran has said reaching an agreement with Oman on the strait doesn’t mean it will open for shipping.
“The waterway would be opened up on the condition that the US will terminate its blockade,” Iran's president Masoud Pezeshkian told Indian broadcaster, India Today. The US military on Saturday said its forces had redirected 100 commercial vessels over the past 60 days.
Bahrain, however, said it will not attend any group meeting including Iran before the restoration of diplomatic relations between the countries.
Iraq’s government confirmed that attacks that shut down a key Saudi oil pipeline on Thursday had originated from its territory.
An umbrella group of Iran-backed militias in Iraq denied their involvement while praising the Houthis for their “ongoing battlefield victories against Saudi forces”.
Regional officials have told the Associated Press that the Houthis and the Iraqi militias recently coordinated attacks on Saudi oil facilities.
As the latest events threaten even higher global oil prices, US president Donald Trump said Iran was “probably” responsible for the pipeline attack, but tried to calm concerns.
“The Houthis called us, and they don’t want to fight with us,” Trump said. “They would much prefer not having us involved, and they’re letting most ships go through.” He said his administration has had “discussions” with the Houthis, but the White House didn’t say when. His administration engaged in at least one round of talks in May 2025.
“We are not in war with Saudi Arabia, and the Houthis have their own problems,” Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian told India Today TV on the sidelines of the Brics summit in India.
As Houthi rebels backed by Iran swept south along Yemen's Red Sea coast this week, some residents had little time to flee.
“We set out in hysterical panic on a motorcycle, not knowing where we were heading,” Alaa Ali Salem said.
“The roads suddenly became extremely congested, and while I was driving, the motorcycle overturned. My wife, my children and I were all injured.”
His family and thousands of others, in numbers leaping by the day, are now displaced as the Arab world's poorest country faces a potential return to a devastating civil war.
The Houthis' advance to the Bab el-Mandeb Strait at the southern end of the Red Sea threatens a key global shipping alternative to the Strait of Hormuz, where Iran has attacked some vessels during more than six months of war.
But on the ground in Yemen, the rebels' offensive means something very different. It could bring the kind of upheaval that killed 150,000 people and caused near-famine before a 2022 ceasefire.
“This renewed war should alarm us all,” the UN special envoy for Yemen, Hans Grundberg, warned as the Houthis moved south.
Iran's foreign ministry announced on Friday that Iran would be attending a meeting with Gulf Arab states in Oman on Monday, at which the future of the Strait of Hormuz would be discussed.
But a senior Iranian official, speaking to Reuters on condition of anonymity on Saturday, played down the chances of a breakthrough, saying the meeting, called at Oman's initiative, was intended to discuss issues including the strait but was not expected to yield a signed agreement.
An agreement on routes through the strait between Iran and Oman will be presented at the meeting on Monday, which will also be attended by Iraq, but the strait will not reopen unless seven conditions conveyed by Iran to the US are met, a source told Tasnim news agency, without elaborating.
In a post on X on Saturday, Ebrahim Azizi, head of the Iranian parliament's national security committee, said: "As long as the American side does not accept all of Iran's conditions, dialogue and negotiation are of no use."
Iran wants its control of the Strait of Hormuz to be recognised, allowing it to collect fees from ships that use it, which Washington rejects. Oman, which controls the opposite bank of the strait, says it is negotiating with the agreement of other regional states.
Oil prices shot up over the past week and the retail price of diesel in the United States surged past a record $6 a gallon as the United States and Iran both fired on tankers and the Houthis in Yemen advanced along the Red Sea, potentially extending disruptions to another major oil route.
Washington now faces a dilemma over whether to help the Saudis fight the Houthis, risking further expansion of the war. Saudi Arabia's de facto ruler, crown prince Mohammed bin Salman, phoned Trump on Thursday and asked for US military help fighting the Houthis, three sources told Reuters.
They said the prince was told that Washington would not intervene directly for now but would help with intelligence.
Donald Trump confirmed on Saturday that he had spoken to the crown prince, and said the Houthis had also phoned his administration and asked Washington not to become directly involved in the conflict.
Four Yemeni government sources told Reuters that the Houthis had seized the strategic island of Perim on Friday in the middle of the Bab el-Mandeb strait – the "Gate of Tears" at the mouth of the Red Sea.
US president Donald Trump, visiting Ireland to attend a golf tournament at one of his resorts, said Iran was probably to blame for the attack on a pipeline in Saudi Arabia.
The East-West pipeline running across the Arabian Peninsula has been moving 4 million to 5 million barrels per day, amounting to four to five per cent of global supply, sparing Saudi Arabia the brunt of the disruption that has crippled other Gulf oil and gas exporters.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the strikes on the pipeline.
Satellite images showed black smoke rising from an area of the pipeline south of Medina. The attack resulted in some injuries and damage that was being assessed, the Saudi Foreign Ministry said without detailing the impact on exports.
On Saturday, the Saudi Civil Defence said in a statement that a projectile fired by the Houthis had injured two people in Jazan region, and damaged several buildings, including a mosque.
Maritime trackers received new reports of an attack on a ship in the Strait of Hormuz on Sunday, adding to concerns about Iran-related threats to energy supplies after Saudi Arabia shut down a vital oil pipeline.
The British navy-affiliated agency UKMTO said it had a report of a projectile hitting a vessel as it moved through the Strait of Hormuz. The amount of damage and the status of the crew were unknown as of early Sunday, the agency said.
UKMTO's report came the day after Saudi Arabia said it had temporarily closed its East-West pipeline as a precaution after a drone attack that both Baghdad and Riyadh said had originated in Iraq, where Iranian-backed militias operate.
Ongoing attacks in the widening Middle East war could send energy prices even higher after a week that saw the cost of Brent crude surge back above $100 a barrel.
The 1,200km (745-mile) East-West pipeline running across the Arabian Peninsula has served as the main route out for global supplies of Middle East oil for the past six months while the Strait of Hormuz has been largely shut by war.
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman called President Donald Trump twice on Thursday and urged him to launch strikes against the Houthis.
