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Oil prices soar as fighting continues in Yemen · THE DAILY BRIEF

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  Speaker 1: Hello, I'm Anita McVey and this is the Iran War Today,
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  Speaker 1: bringing you up to date with all you need to
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  Speaker 1: know on the US war with Iran. Let's start with
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  Speaker 1: some of today's key developments as the conflict widens. Saudi
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  Speaker 1: Arabia and Yemen's armed forces have continued their fight against
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  Speaker 1: Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen, launching dozens of airstrikes on key
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  Speaker 1: Houthi positions. It's in response to the militants targeting key
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  Speaker 1: oil pipelines and infrastructure. The widening internal war between the
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  Speaker 1: Houthi militants and Yemen's armed forces is causing a major
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  Speaker 1: humanitarian crisis. The UN says 100,000 people have been internally displaced.
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  Speaker 1: Thousands more have already fled across the Bab el-Mandeb Strait
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  Speaker 1: to Djibouti in less than a week. Meanwhile, another vessel
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  Speaker 1: has been hit in the Strait of Hormuz. UK maritime
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  Speaker 1: trade operations say an unknown projectile struck a vessel in
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  Speaker 1: the waterway. Oman's navy said they rescued 23 members of crew.
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  Speaker 1: Only a handful of ships have been able to cross
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  Speaker 1: through the strait in the last 24 hours. The fighting
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  Speaker 1: between Saudi Arabia and the Houthis, combined with continued strikes
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  Speaker 1: in the Strait of Hormuz, have kept oil prices high,
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  Speaker 1: with Brent crude remaining above $ 100 a barrel. And Lebanon's
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  Speaker 1: prime minister has revealed the huge cost of Israel's war
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  Speaker 1: with Hezbollah on his country. Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said
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  Speaker 1: rebuilding will cost up to $ 4 billion and will require
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  Speaker 1: support from other nations. As a stalemate continues between the U.S.
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  Speaker 1: and Iran, fighting continues to escalate in the Red Sea,
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  Speaker 1: centered around the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen. The Houthis claim
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  Speaker 1: they have hit a major Saudi base and seized more
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  Speaker 1: strategic islands in the southern Red Sea, releasing this footage
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  Speaker 1: of their attacks and rapid advance in Yemen. Saudi and
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  Speaker 1: Yemeni forces have intensified their strikes on Houthi targets in response,
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  Speaker 1: releasing footage of their own of successfully targeted strikes on
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  Speaker 1: Houthi positions. Our Middle East correspondent Hugo Bachega has the latest.
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  Speaker 2: The full scale of the fighting on the ground in
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  Speaker 2: Yemen remains unclear. The Houthis have made significant advances along
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  Speaker 2: the country's Red Sea coast and have been striking Saudi
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  Speaker 2: cities and infrastructure. This has put a lot of pressure
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  Speaker 2: on energy supplies. A vital east-west pipeline in Saudi Arabia
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  Speaker 2: has been shut after a drone attack a few days
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  Speaker 2: ago and concerns remain that the Houthis may try to
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  Speaker 2: disrupt Saudi oil shipments in the Bab al-Mandab Strait, which
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  Speaker 2: has become a key alternative for Saudi oil exports, given
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  Speaker 2: that the Strait of Hormuz has been effectively closed because
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  Speaker 2: of the US war against Iran. In the meantime, Saudi
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  Speaker 2: and Yemeni forces have been striking Houthi positions with frequent
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  Speaker 2: airstrikes and a Houthi spokesperson said at least three people
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  Speaker 2: had been killed in the latest Saudi attacks, including two children.
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  Speaker 2: There hasn't been any reaction from the Saudi government. And
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  Speaker 2: in Saudi Arabia, emergency alerts were sent for the city
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  Speaker 2: of Mecca for the first time in this crisis amid
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  Speaker 2: fears of renewed Houthi attacks. Now, we still don't know
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  Speaker 2: if the Houthis are going to try to capture more
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  Speaker 2: territory in Yemen or if the government and its allies
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  Speaker 2: are planning to launch a wider counter-offensive. But the concern
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  Speaker 2: here is that This violence could reignite the civil war
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  Speaker 2: in Yemen after four years of relative calm.
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  Speaker 1: The renewed conflict in Yemen has left more than 100,000
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  Speaker 1: people internally displaced, that's according to the United Nations, and
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  Speaker 1: has sparked thousands of people to flee from Yemen across
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  Speaker 1: the Baab al-Mandab Strait to Djibouti. The UN has called
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  Speaker 1: the huge influx of refugees unexpected and is warning of
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  Speaker 1: a humanitarian crisis if thousands more people arrive if the
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  Speaker 1: fighting continues. Our global affairs reporter Richard Kugowi has more
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  Speaker 1: from Nairobi.
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  Speaker 3: Well, the UN in Djibouti is saying that they are
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  Speaker 3: currently overwhelmed by the influx of refugees who are fleeing
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  Speaker 3: the fighting in Yemen, saying that they have so far
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  Speaker 3: received about 2,400. But the authorities in Djibouti indicating that
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  Speaker 3: there are 1,000 more, about 3,400 refugees. and more are
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  Speaker 3: still coming. What they're saying is that the town of Obok,
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  Speaker 3: which is literally on the frontline in terms of this response,
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  Speaker 3: is currently overwhelmed because you're having majority of them who
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  Speaker 3: are children. They say that the children on arrival appear
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  Speaker 3: to be stressed. Also, at the same time, they appear
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  Speaker 3: to be very tired. But there's a sense of relief
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  Speaker 3: from them, the fact that they have been able to
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  Speaker 3: escape the war and successfully navigated the waters across the
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  Speaker 3: Red Sea. So currently what they're doing is they're doing registration,
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  Speaker 3: providing them with water, with food and other supplies.
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  Speaker 1: The fighting in the Red Sea is having a huge
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  Speaker 1: impact on the already inflated oil prices, and it's clear
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  Speaker 1: to see why. Since the start of the US-Israel war
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  Speaker 1: with Iran, the Strait of Hormuz has either been blocked
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  Speaker 1: or remained a highly risky route for Saudi Arabia to
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  Speaker 1: try to ship its oil out to the rest of
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  Speaker 1: the world. To combat that, Saudi Arabia has been piping
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  Speaker 1: oil across the country from east to west and using
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  Speaker 1: the Red Sea to get its oil out to the
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  Speaker 1: global market. The problem is that pipeline has now been
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  Speaker 1: taken offline as a result of strikes by the Houthis
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  Speaker 1: and by Iran-backed proxies in Iraq. Take a look at
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  Speaker 1: this satellite image from Vantor. This is what one of
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  Speaker 1: Saudi Arabia's major pumping stations looked like last October. And
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  Speaker 1: this is what the same pumping station looks like now.
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  Speaker 1: There is a huge amount of damage to it. And
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  Speaker 1: experts have told BBC Verify repairs could take more than
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  Speaker 1: a month. But even when Saudi Arabia can get the
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  Speaker 1: pipeline back up and running, the Houthis could still cause issues.
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  Speaker 1: And that's because the ideal route out of the Red
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  Speaker 1: Sea is the Bab al-Mandab Strait. But now... As the
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  Speaker 1: Houthis are blocking that route, the only way for the
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  Speaker 1: oil to go out of the Red Sea is through
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  Speaker 1: the Suez Canal in the north, which is not only
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  Speaker 1: a much smaller exit for ships, but it also means
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  Speaker 1: that any oil travelling to Asia has to travel all
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  Speaker 1: the way around the southern tip of Africa. And time,
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  Speaker 1: of course, means money. Well, let's speak to our North
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  Speaker 1: America correspondent, Samira Hussain. Samira, the conflict in the Middle
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  Speaker 1: East was already having major issues for the price of oil,
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  Speaker 1: and these latest developments are presumably cranking up that pressure
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  Speaker 1: even further.
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  Speaker 3: Absolutely.
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  Speaker 4: We're seeing now that the price of oil is trading
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  Speaker 4: at around $ 109 a barrel. That's for Brent crude. And
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  Speaker 4: as you rightly pointed out, look, you have the main
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  Speaker 4: Strait of Hormuz that has been blocked because of the
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  Speaker 4: war with Iran. And now you have the Bab al-Mandeb
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  Speaker 4: Strait that is also being constricted. And so there really
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  Speaker 4: is only one way to bring oil out there. And
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  Speaker 4: it takes a long time to for that to be
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  Speaker 4: able to happen. And it really just limits how much
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  Speaker 4: oil can actually get to other countries. So what is
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  Speaker 4: the impact that we're seeing? Well, in terms of global
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  Speaker 4: oil reserves, we're seeing that those are dwindling really quite quickly.
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  Speaker 4: And so now what's going to have to happen is
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  Speaker 4: that other countries are going to have to buy commercial
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  Speaker 4: oil to rebuild some of those supplies. And as we know,
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  Speaker 4: it comes at a pretty hefty cost.
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  Speaker 1: And, Samira, what effect is all of this having on
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  Speaker 1: the wider markets, like bonds, for example?
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  Speaker 4: Well, so the price of energy, as it goes higher,
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  Speaker 4: it has a direct impact on inflation. Here in the
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  Speaker 4: United States, we just got some inflation numbers, and we
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  Speaker 4: know that a third of inflation, the rises in inflation
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  Speaker 4: that we've seen, have to do with the high cost
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  Speaker 4: of energy. And that just means that we're going to
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  Speaker 4: see things like bond yields. So that is the interest rate,
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  Speaker 4: the rate of interest that investors will make on these bonds. Well,
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  Speaker 4: that's going higher. But with inflation going higher, it also
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  Speaker 4: means that investors are going to want to make more
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  Speaker 4: money elsewhere, which is why you're seeing that there's a
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  Speaker 4: sell-off happening in the bond market. And you see that
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  Speaker 4: investors are trying to find more value for their buck.
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  Speaker 1: OK, Samira, thank you very much. Samira Hussain there. Whether
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  Speaker 1: you are joining us on YouTube, TikTok, Sounds, radio or TV,
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  Speaker 1: thank you for your time. We'll be back soon with
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  Speaker 1: another Iran War Today.