{"id":565206,"date":"2026-07-24T02:02:16","date_gmt":"2026-07-24T02:02:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/565206\/"},"modified":"2026-07-24T02:02:16","modified_gmt":"2026-07-24T02:02:16","slug":"trump-close-to-deciding-on-massive-attack-against-iran-after-houthis-strike-red-sea-tankers-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/565206\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump close to deciding on \u2018massive attack\u2019 against Iran after Houthis strike Red Sea tankers \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

US<\/a> president Donald Trump<\/a> has said he is close to deciding whether to launch \u201ca massive attack\u201d against Iran<\/a>, on a scale larger than strikes already witnessed during the months-long conflict with Tehran.<\/p>\n

Speaking to the Axios news site Trump said: \u201cI am considering a massive attack. Bigger than ever before. I am close to making a decision. We are all set for it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump made his remarks on Thursday as oil<\/a> prices once again surged past the symbolic $100 for a barrel of Brent crude, the international benchmark.<\/p>\n

The US president acknowledged that such a decision would have consequences but said he had not yet made a final determination, saying Israel<\/a> \u201cwould join in two minutes if I ask them to\u201d before adding: \u201cWe don\u2019t need anybody.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s comments followed the earlier threat of \u201cmajor military punishment\u201d against Iran and the Houthis<\/a>, after the Iran-backed Yemeni<\/a> militia\u2019s attacks on two Saudi Arabian<\/a> oil tankers in the Red Sea.<\/p>\n

Underlining the sense of a region increasingly approaching an abyss, the United Nations<\/a> secretary general Ant\u00f3nio Guterres<\/a> told the security council that the Middle East was being pushed to the \u201cedge of the unimaginable\u201d amid mounting fears over the trajectory of the conflict.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cThe situation is getting out of control. It is teetering on the edge of the unimaginable. The region is being pulled into an ever-widening circle of confrontation. One crisis feeds another. One escalation triggers the next,\u201d Guterres told a security council meeting.<\/p>\n

In a separate development, Trump clarified on Thursday that an announced agreement that Saudi Arabia<\/a> would get US help with its civilian nuclear programme would require the kingdom to normalise relations with Israel through the Abraham Accords, a move Saudi Arabia has long resisted until there is demonstrable movement on Palestinian rights and statehood.<\/p>\n

It emerged later that Trump had not spoken to Saudi Arabia about the new condition.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Why has the US done a nuclear deal with Saudi Arabia?Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

The Houthi attacks threatened a second major maritime route connecting the Suez Canal to the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden. It also comes amid reports that Iran had sent military advisers and drone parts to the Houthis 10 days ago.<\/p>\n

Ships had begun turning back from sailing through the narrow Bab el-Mandeb strait earlier this week after the Houthis had announced a blockade of Saudi ports, most notably the Red Sea port of Yanbu, which Riyadh has been using to ship oil to Asia during the conflict between the US and Iran over the Strait of Hormuz<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"USUS president Donald Trump speaks to reporters in Delaware, on Wednesday. Photograph: Kenny Holston\/The New York Times<\/p>\n

\u201cIf [the Houthis] do this again, the US will hold Iran responsible, in that the Houthis are a Surrogate and\/or Proxy of Iran, and major military punishment will be inflicted upon Iran and, of course, the Houthis, themselves,\u201d Trump wrote on social media.<\/p>\n

The Houthis\u2019 Saba news agency said the rebels had struck two tankers, the Encelia and the Layla, in the Red Sea, leading to fires on both. There were no reports of casualties in their first reported attack on a vessel since they announced the blockade of Saudi-linked shipping.<\/p>\n

Two weeks since the effective collapse of an interim truce meant to end the war, the US military launched another round of air strikes on Iran overnight into Thursday, prompting Iran to fire at \u200bneighbouring Arab countries that house US bases. \u2013 The Guardian<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"US president Donald Trump has said he is close to deciding whether to launch \u201ca massive attack\u201d against…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":565207,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[68227,969,37635,42,166933,11829,3410,43,6000,383,150177,40,38,41,39,115,23242,1197],"class_list":["post-565206","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-antonio-guterres","tag-donald-trump","tag-energy-crisis","tag-headlines","tag-houthi","tag-iran","tag-israel","tag-news","tag-oil","tag-saudi-arabia","tag-strait-of-hormuz","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-united-states","tag-united-nations-un","tag-yemen"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/565206","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=565206"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/565206\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/565207"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=565206"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=565206"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=565206"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}