Yemen’s Houthi militants have escalated attacks on Saudi Arabia’s energy facilities in a campaign that is destabilising the world’s largest oil exporter and strengthening the hand of Iran.

The rebel group claimed responsibility for drone and missile attacks on the giant Saudi Aramco Jazan oil facility on Sunday, as well as what a Houthi spokesperson called a “widespread destruction operation” against Saudi forces in the strategic Red Sea port of Al-Makha that reportedly killed at least seven people.

The attacks come after strikes in the past week on shipping in Bab al-Mandab, the narrow passage in the Red Sea off Yemen, threatening another critical maritime trade route that has served as an alternative to the disrupted Strait of Hormuz.

Saudi Arabia’s energy ministry acknowledged that a fire had broken out at the Jazan refinery on Sunday but claimed it was quickly extinguished with no injuries reported. A Houthi spokesperson claimed the strike was in response to Saudi drones “violating Yemeni airspace” and what the rebels characterise as a “blockade” of land sea and air routes into the country.

The Jazan facility had suffered damage in a previous attack – also claimed by the Houthis at the end of July – threatening pipelines running across Saudi Arabia and oil export terminals on the Red Sea coast that have provided overland alternatives to Hormuz.

The latest Houthi attacks come days after Saudi Arabia signed a Nato-style mutual defence pact with Turkey and Pakistan, as the Kingdom seeks to bolster its defences and promote “peace, security, and stability” in the face of regional turmoil unleased by the US and Israeli war with Iran.

The Saudi leadership had broadly maintained a truce with the Houthis following a war that began in 2014 and quietened after a UN-backed ceasefire in 2022.

The relative calm broke down when Saudi Arabian forces attacked the main airport in Sanaa, Yemen’s Houthi-controlled capital, as Houthi leaders were flying back from the funeral of Iran’s former supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed in the first strike of the war in February.

Since the US/Israel war with Iran started in the spring, Saudi strategy to contain the conflict in Yemen has come under pressure, with aanalysts pointing to increased co-ordination between the Houthis, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and Iraqi militias, who are seeking to block access to Saudi Arabian ports, cause economic damage and force the Saudis to recognise Houthi control of the west of Yemen including Sanaa.

The bigger picture for the Houthis may be to support their Iranian allies by provoking the Saudis to such an extent that they demand Donald Trump take action and end the conflict in the region, experts believe. “This is this is not something that Saudi Arabia wants at all,” said Christopher Phillips, professor of international relations at Queen Mary University of London.

After intervening in Yemen in 2015, the Saudis carried out a massive air campaign, supported by the US and UK, leading to a humanitarian disaster in Yemen but failing to dislodge the Houthi rebels, who have ended up in de facto control of much of the country.

Now the Iranians are seeking to poke the Saudi sore spot.

“It seems that Iran instigated this and have tried to turn the screws on Saudi Arabia. Whether they’re trying to provoke them into a larger conflict isn’t clear, but what they are trying to do is put pressure on the Saudis with the logic that Saudi Arabia will then put pressure on the US to come to an agreement with Iran on the Straits of Hormuz or closer to Iran’s terms,” Phillips told The i Paper.

Saudi priorities had been to stop Iran from rebuilding Houthi military capacity and to stop the conflict from spreading to the Red Sea, according to Dr Neil Quilliam, associate fellow at Chatham House’s Middle East and North Africa programme, “but obviously that hasn’t worked”.

While Iran might have the big picture in mind, the Houthis have their own agenda to push back the Saudis from interfering in Yemen’s politics. “The Houthis want to use the wider regional war and the attacks on Saudi linked vessels and energy assets to force Saudi Arabia to lift the blockade of the key port of Hodeida,” Quilliam added.

“The strategy is to use the war to advance [the Houthi regime’s] interests by increasing the flow of arms through Hodeida, so that it can further consolidate its territorial grip and challenge the groups that oppose it in Yemen,” he added.

Saudi Arabia is in a strategic bind of seeking a return a stability without showing weakness to their enemies. “We’ve seen in the past that Saudi Arabia have been able to persuade Donald Trump to act in a certain way with regard to Iran, but if they immediately ring up Trump and say, ‘Okay, Donald, the Houthis are bombing us, now give Iran what they want,’ then Iran will just do it every time they need to negotiate,” said Phillips.

“Privately, one must assume that they are having conversations with the White House, effectively saying, ‘We expect you as our ally to sort this out. Fundamentally, Donald, this is your war.”

Riyadh’s state oil firm Aramco Saudi Arabia has sought to play down the effects of the attacks on an industry that generates around $20bn (£14.9bn) a month in export receipts. But Phillips warned the worst may be to come.

“The Houthis were sending a message that we can hit you. The more significant issue is the closing of the Bab al-Mandab Strait. That is the thing that’s really going to hit, not so much Saudi’s energy supplies, but its ability to export oil and gas, and that is going to hit Saudi’s income pretty quickly.”