Saudi Arabia shuts key oil pipeline after drone attack launched from Iraq | BBC News

The pressure on the flow of oil from the Middle East because of the US and Israeli war with Iran has intensified. Saudi Arabia says it shuts the east west oil pipeline it's been using to bypass restrictions in the straight of

Humuz after attacks on Thursday. The Iranbacked Houthis have reportedly came claim control of Pim Island as part of their offensive against government forces. It comes a day after the Houthis captured the strategic port city of Mocha from Saudiabed progovernment forces.

Pim Island divides the Babab al-Mandab Strait, a key global shipping route. The Houthies say they'll blockade Saudi shipping in the strait, increasing pressure on global oil supplies. Caroline Hol has the latest.

Helped by ballistic missiles, the Houthis have been advancing on the ground with lightning speed. These fired at the strategic port of Mocka, which they took yesterday from government forces. Here they are inside the city, once the birthplace of

the global coffee trade, significant now because its capture helped propel them on to the crucial Babbel Mandab Strait. Fighting escalated last week after a 4-year ceasefire in Yemen's long-running civil war, began to unravel in July. Saudi Arabia, which supports the Yemeni government forces, has been

trying to slow the advance of the Iranbacked Houthis with air strikes to no avail. It's a war with consequences around the region and beyond. The Houthis have been moving from the territory they've held in the north of Yemen all the way along the

Red Sea coast. On Wednesday, they took the town of Hace. Then yesterday, Mocka fell to their forces. Now they've captured the town of Dubab and Yemeni government troops who are backed by Saudi Arabia have also pulled

out of Perum Island right in the middle of the Beal Mandab. Today, this jubilant Houthi militia said the rebels don't need missiles anymore. They just need to position themselves in the right places

around the waterway. The bear balm mandab has become increasingly important for Saudi Arabia because it's had to export its oil through this Red Sea route after Iran blockaded the straight of Hormuz. >> This afternoon, the Houthis said that shipping through the waterway

would be safe for everyone apart from the Saudis. Satellite images show the impact of another attack in western Saudi Arabia on the route of an oil pipeline. Big setbacks for the kingdom this week, a major win for Iran.

Iran today has a weapon that's more important than the nuclear bomb. And that's the two most strategic straits in the Middle East are under its direct or indirect control. It now can negotiate at much better hands with the

West and the United States. >> So worried the Saudis, they're reported to have pressed Donald Trump apparently unsuccessfully to intervene. And even if the Houthies do only block Saudi shipping, it will still have significant consequences for the global economy

already hit hard by the US war on Iran. Caroline Holy, BBC News. Our Middle East correspondent Hugo Basher is following developments from Jerusalem. He told me more about Saudi Arabia's capacity to respond

to the Houthi's advance. Despite their request, where does this leave the Saudis? How capable are they on their own? Yeah, Katherine, I think it will be very interesting to see what the Saudi strategy is going to be.

I think this apparent rejection by the Trump administration to intervene uh rejecting those requests by Saudi Arabia suggests that the US doesn't want to see a further escalation of the situation here. We know that the situation is already volatile because of

the current standoff between the Americans and the Iranians. there hasn't been a deal to end the war with Iran and we've seen that recent flare ups uh in uh the conflict there uh have led uh to more pressure on energy markets.