US strikes disrupt communications with two Iranian islands, minister says

Qatar condemned on Tuesday remarks by the Houthi military spokesman accusing Saudi Arabia of blockading Yemen and restricting maritime navigation.

The Qatari foreign ministry called on the international community to enforce UN Security Council resolutions on Yemen and freedom of navigation in the Red Sea.

It said freedom of navigation in international waterways was a fundamental principle of international law and expressed Doha’s full support for measures taken by Saudi Arabia to protect its security and sovereignty.

Iran would attack US forces if they entered any Iranian island, even if doing so required striking its own territory, the country’s army spokesman said on Tuesday.

Mohammad Akraminia said countries at war may target parts of their own territory occupied by enemy forces to inflict casualties.

“If Americans set foot on one of our islands, we will certainly target them on those same islands, even though they belong to us,” he said.

The long-running conservative Ettelaat newspaper said on Tuesday that simultaneously closing the Strait of Hormuz and Bab el-Mandeb would hurt Iran in the long term.

The newspaper said such closures could provide Iran with short-term leverage but would not offer a sustainable advantage.

It added that the global economy might withstand several weeks of severe disruption, but a crisis lasting months would intensify economic pressure and greatly increase the likelihood of broad intervention by major powers.

Israeli intelligence assessed that Iran moved thousands of uranium-enrichment centrifuges into tunnels deep inside Pickaxe Mountain last fall, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing Israeli and US officials.

Israel shared the intelligence with the United States, saying the centrifuges were transferred after US and Israeli strikes targeted Iran’s three main nuclear sites during the June 2025 war.

Moving centrifuges to the site would not necessarily mean Iran was establishing an enrichment facility there and Tehran may have stored surviving equipment underground to protect it from attacks, according to the report.

Oil prices edged lower on Tuesday as markets weighed reports of renewed mediation efforts between the United States and Iran against continued military exchanges and Houthi threats to impose a naval blockade on Saudi Arabia.

Brent crude futures fell 35 cents, or 0.4%, to $88.87 a barrel, while US West Texas Intermediate crude for September delivery was little changed at $82.47.

Both contracts remained below the more than one-month highs reached in the previous session.