US-Middle East

The Persian Gulf monarchies have called on the US not to use American military bases on their territories to launch military operation in response to any potential Iranian attack on Israel, sources told Middle East Eye.

Baghdad and Washington held talks on ending the presence of U.S.-led coalition forces in Iraq, the Iraqi military has announced.

The leader of Yemen’s Houthi group has claimed that American and British air raids on his country since January have killed 37 people and injured 30 others.

Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei has praised the anti-Israel military operations by resistance factions in Palestine, Lebanon, Yemen and Iraq. He stressed that the Axis of Resistance has demonstrated its potential and effectively disrupted the US strategic calculations in West Asia

The United States and the United Kingdom have launched a string of air raids against targets in Yemen's southwestern province of Ta'izz and the strategic western province of Hudaydah as the Houthi movement continues its maritime operations against Israeli-linked vessels in the Red Sea.

The United States has sent the first ship with equipment to establish a sea corridor for the delivery of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip, the US Central Command announced on Sunday.

A spokesperson for the Palestinian group Hamas has told Al Jazeera that the US plan to build a temporary port off Gaza's coast to deliver humanitarian aid to the besieged enclave “is a step in the right direction”.

The Yemeni Houthi movement said on Saturday it has targeted a US vessel and several destroyers with naval missiles and drones in the Red Sea in support of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

The United States is in the process of preparing to deploy forces for the Gaza pier mission to increase the flow of humanitarian aid to the besieged enclave, Defense Department spokesperson Pat Ryder has stated.

US President Joe Biden has warned that it would be "tough" to reach a ceasefire agreement in the Gaza Strip by the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

Negative attitudes towards the United States in West Asia have reached a record-high level amid Washington's support for Israel’s ongoing military onslaught against the Gaza Strip, The Financial Times (FT) has reported, citing data from the Arab Opinion Index.

At least three seafarers have been killed in a Houthi missile attack on a merchant ship in the Gulf of Aden, the United States military has announced, marking the first fatalities reported since the Yemeni group began strikes against shipping in one of the world’s busiest sea lanes over Israel’s war on the Gaza Strip.

During a congressional hearing on Thursday in Washington, US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin stated that since 7 October, more than 25,000 Palestinian women and children have been killed by Israel in the Gaza Strip.

The administration of US President Joe Biden came under fire from lawmakers over the lack of congressional approval to conduct military strikes against Yemen’s Houthis and defend foreign ships in the Red Sea.

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian, in a meeting with the UN Secretary General Antoni Guterres, strongly condemned the US’ attempts to escalate tensions in the Red Sea and Yemen, warning that Washington's actions will ruin joint efforts by Tehran and the United Nations to bring calm to the region.

Yemen’s defense minister has praised the ongoing naval operations by the country’s military against Israeli-linked ships in the Red Sea in support of Gaza, stressing that the era of “hegemonic influence” of Washington and its allies on international waters is over.

Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Nasser Kanaani strongly condemned the fresh round of air attacks by the US and the UK against Yemen. He stressed that the joint move will only escalate insecurity and instability in the region without any achievement for Washington and London.

The United States and the United Kingdom have bombed more than a dozen Houthi sites in Yemen, officials said, as the Yemeni group stepped up its attacks on ships in the Red Sea in protest against Israel’s war on the Gaza Strip.

US officials are increasingly questioning the effectiveness of military methods in combating the Houthi fighters in Yemen, who continue their military operation in the Red Sea in response to the ongoing Israeli-Hamas conflict, CNN reported, citing US officials in the know.

US President Joe Biden’s administration has reportedly changed its position to a humanitarian ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and proposed a UN resolution calling on Israel to cancel its planned military operation in the besieged enclave’s last refuge for displaced civilians.

Houthi fighters have attempted to use a submersible drone for the first time, but it was destroyed in yet another wave of US-led coalition attacks on Yemeni soil over the weekend, the US Central Command has claimed.

A number of Arab countries are reportedly “increasingly restricting” the United States and its allies from conducting attacks from their soil against Iran and resistant groups in the West Asia region amid the Israeli war on the besieged Gaza Strip.

Iraq has announced that it has resumed negotiations with the United States on the future of the coalition, expressing hope that they would not be disrupted and lead to an outcome soon.

The US carried out a drone strike in the Iraqi capital on Wednesday night that killed three members of the Kataib Hezbollah militia, including a senior commander. The US  Central Command (CENTCOM) has taken responsibility for the raid.

Retired US Marine General James Mattis was hired in 2015 to advise the United Arab Emirates about the Saudi-led war on Yemen, the Washington Post has reported. Mattis did not publicly disclose the gig when he became secretary of defense in 2017.