Peshawar, Sep 15: An Islamabad anti-terrorism court has ordered the blocking of passports of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Muhammad Sohail Afridi and 24 other Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) lawmakers in connection with a case registered at a police station in the national capital.

Judge Abul Hasnat Muhammad Zulqarnain on Monday issued the order while allowing a request by the police and directed the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) to block the passports until further orders.

The order also covers senior PTI leader and former National Assembly speaker Asad Qaiser, lawmakers Shahram Khan Tarakai, Shah Ahmad, Sher Ali Arbab, Muhammad Iqbal Afridi, Dr Amjad Ali, Junaid Akbar, Shahid Khattak, Zubair Wazir, Arshad Umarzai, Zar Alam, Mian Omar and Akhtar Khan, among others.

The court said the available record showed that the individuals have been named as accused in the case.

The investigating officer told the court that the accused could flee the country to evade legal proceedings and alleged that they were facing serious charges, including attacks on state institutions and promotion of terrorism.

The court noted that the accused had failed to appear before it and that those who had secured interim bail had also not yet joined the investigation.

It subsequently approved the police request and ordered the FIA to keep the passports blocked until further orders.

The order comes amid heightened political activity by the PTI, which has announced a nationwide protest for September 27.

Afridi, who is currently touring Punjab to mobilise support for the planned protest, separately alleged on Monday that Punjab Police had attempted to abduct him and later left him on the roadside after assaulting and mistreating him.

“Punjab Police will have to answer for this action. This is no joke,” Afridi said, describing the alleged treatment of a chief minister of one province by police of another province as “unacceptable”.

He demanded an explanation from the Punjab government over why he was allegedly left on the roadside and mistreated.

The PTI has in recent months remained engaged in political agitation against the central government, with its supporters and leaders facing multiple cases linked to protests and alleged violence against state institutions.

Dubai, Sep 15: Yemen’s Houthi rebels have seized the strategic islands of Greater and Lesser Hanish in the southern Red Sea, bolstering the Iran-backed rebels’ ability to control a key maritime shipping route.

Meanwhile, repairs to a crucial Saudi Arabian oil pipeline that was struck in an attack last week could last three to five weeks, putting it mostly out of service, two regional officials said.

Here’s a look at the latest news in the Middle East. Full coverage can be found here.

Houthis gain ground as oil prices face more pressure

Houthi officials said Monday that rebels had taken over the two islands just as Saudi-backed government forces tried to claw back territory from the rebels’ swift advances around the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, a crucial shipping alternative to the Strait of Hormuz.

Iran effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz — through which a fifth of the world’s traded oil and gas transits in peacetime — in the opening days of the war. The Saudis have since used the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, which leads out of the Red Sea, for crude oil exports.

The Houthis’ latest takeover, following the seizure of the Red Sea port of Mokha and a strategic island last week, puts more pressure on Saudi shipments and, in turn, global oil supplies and prices.

This could give Iran additional leverage in its war with the United States.

Oil might only partially move through damaged line

Saudi Arabia relies on the East-West Pipeline to move crude from Gulf ports to ports on its western, Red Sea coast. From there it can be put on tankers for export.

Two officials briefed on the matter said repairing damage from an attack on September 10 could take weeks, including at a major pumping facility.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorised to brief the media. One said the line may work partially while teams carry out the repairs.

China, a major Middle East oil importer, called Houthi attacks on Saudi energy infrastructure “unacceptable” and said that it was “deeply concerned” about further escalations by the rebels.

Saudi Arabia behind postponed meeting on Hormuz: Iran

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei said Monday that Saudi Arabia had “demanded” that a meeting bringing together Iran with other regional countries to discuss the Strait of Hormuz be scrapped “for the time being.”

Baghaei called the meeting, which was to be hosted by Oman, a “proper opportunity” to restore security in the region.

The spokesperson said that an agreement between Iran and Oman on the Strait of Hormuz has been finalised and it will be announced later.

Saudi Arabia had submitted amendments to the agreement, citing concerns that it could have lasting implications for the Strait of Hormuz, negatively impacting other Gulf Cooperation Council countries, according to a Gulf official familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Iran condemns Austria’s visa refusal for its nuclear chief

Iran denounced on Monday the refusal by Austria to issue visas to the Iranian nuclear chief and other delegation members for the International Atomic Energy Agency’s general conference in Vienna, calling the decision “completely unjustified.”

Baghaei said that Tehran summoned the Austrian chargé d’affaires, saying Austria was obligated as the host country to issue the visas.

Baghaei accused Western countries of denying Iran an opportunity to defend itself and blamed the US for pressuring Austria to deny the visas.

The refusal is part of UN sanctions on Iran, reinstated last year, that include a travel ban on Iranian officials.

Iran fails to live up to nuclear obligations, US official says

US Energy Secretary Chris Wright on Monday criticised Iran’s failure to cooperate with the UN nuclear watchdog.

Wright was particularly critical of Tehran’s refusal to grant UN inspectors access to Iran’s nuclear sites affected by the war. He said Iran had “ample time to address its egregious negligence” toward its obligations “but that time is up.”

US-Saudi deal contains rigorous clauses to prevent proliferation

Wright said additional safeguards contained in a US-Saudi nuclear accord include “absolutely rigorous” terms against proliferation. He told the IAEA general conference that the UN nuclear agency “was part of it all along.”

The US-Saudi accord, signed in July, could potentially provide the kingdom the capability to enrich uranium for its civilian nuclear programme.

Wright was responding to a question from the media about why the US requested Iran to sign an Additional Protocol and not Saudi Arabia. The Additional Protocol is an agreement between the IAEA and a country that grants agency inspectors increased access to nuclear sites.

Yemenis flee homes as rebels press on

Nearly 94,000 people have fled their homes in Yemen since fighting between Iran-backed Houthi rebels and government forces escalated this month, the International Organisation for Migration said Monday.

The worst-hit areas are Taiz and Lahj, where 48,000 have been displaced, the UN agency said, adding that more than 2,000 people have fled across the sea into Djibouti.

Around 200 schools have been converted to shelters in southwestern Yemen to absorb an influx of families, the International Rescue Committee, an aid group, said.

Israeli strikes in Gaza kill 2

Israeli strikes across the Gaza Strip on Monday killed two people and wounded several others, hospital officials and the health ministry said.

One person was killed in Gaza City, while the other was killed when a strike hit tents in Muwasi, according to Shifa and Nasser hospitals.

The strikes also wounded people in Zawaida in central Gaza and Khan Younis in southern Gaza, the health ministry said. The Israeli military confirmed the strikes and said they targeted militants.

US slaps Russian-owned bank with full sanctions

The US Treasury Department on Monday issued full sanctions on VTB Bank — one of Russia’s largest financial institutions — as part of its efforts to target Iran’s remaining financial lifelines.

But the impact of the sanctions remains unclear as the Biden administration had also issued sweeping sanctions against the state-owned bank shortly after the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Under Trump, US officials are now accusing the institution of helping the Islamic Republic evade sanctions by establishing correspondent relationships with sanctioned Iranian banks. For years, VTB Bank has been expanding its global presence, including opening branches in China, India and Iran.

Cairo, Sep 15: A crucial Saudi oil pipeline that was struck in an attack will be mostly out of service for weeks as the damage is repaired, two regional officials said Monday, as Yemen’s Houthi rebels seized more islands along Red Sea shipping routes in a new blow to Saudi Arabia’s oil exports.

Oil prices gained more than 2 per cent amid growing worries about global petroleum supplies and the effect of the new developments on the ability of the world’s biggest exporter to get its crude to market. The Iran war has forced the kingdom to shift its exports away from the Persian Gulf, since Iranian attacks have stifled shipping through the gulf’s sole exit, the Strait of Hormuz.

So the kingdom has relied on the East-West Pipeline, which runs 1,200 kilometres across the breadth of the country, to move its crude production from Gulf ports to the port of Yanbu on the Red Sea. From there it can be put on tankers for export. But authorities were forced to shut down the pipeline after an attack Thursday that Saudi Arabia blamed on drones from Iranian-backed militias in Iraq.

Repairing the damage, including at a major pumping facility, could take three to five weeks, the officials, who have been briefed on the matter, told The Associated Press. The pipeline may work partially during the repairs, one of the officials said, but they could not say how much oil might get through.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to brief the media.

The pipeline has been moving an average of 2.6 million to 4 million barrels per day since late August — a quantity that will be lost to the market if the pipeline’s flow stops completely, according to an analysis issued Monday by Rystad Energy, a Norway-based research firm. It said the jump in prices for Brent crude, which reached USD 109, “is a clear signal that the market is increasingly pricing in a significant loss of supply.”

The Saudi oil company Aramco, which operates the pipeline, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The government-run Centre for International Communication, which oversees foreign media in the kingdom, said it was looking into an AP inquiry about how long it will take to repair the pipeline.

Houthis’ capture of islands strengthens hold on key outlet from the Red Sea

Meanwhile, Yemen’s Iranian-backed Houthi rebels continued to expand their threat to Saudi shipping routes out of the Red Sea by capturing the strategic islands of Greater and Lesser Hanish, government and Houthi officials said Monday.

The islands lie 160 kilometres north of the Bab el-Mandeb Strait. The strait is a choke point that connects the Red Sea to the open ocean and Saudi Arabia’s key Asian markets.

The Houthis’ advance also puts them just 32 kilometres from the US military base in the tiny Horn of Africa nation of Djibouti, on the other side of the Bab el-Mandeb Strait.

For more than a month, the Houthis have been striking Saudi oil infrastructure and shipping in the Red Sea, stepping up pressure on global oil prices and boosting Iran’s leverage in its war with the United States.

The Houthi advances have seemed to come with little resistance from Saudi-backed Yemeni government forces. The rebels deployed on the Hanish islands after hundreds of government-allied forces withdrew from the archipelago, according to two government officials and a Houthi official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Last week, the rebels seized the port city of Mokha and the island of Mayun, inside the Bab el-Mandeb Strait.

Government forces are now attempting to rally and fight back. On Sunday, the military said it launched airstrikes on Houthi positions in Mokha, the coastal town of Dhubab and elsewhere in Taiz province.

A rebel spokesperson said the Houthis fired dozens of missiles and drones at the King Khalid Air Base in the southern Saudi city of Khamis Mushait, targeting hangars, radar installations and ammunition depots. The statement on Monday by Brig Gen Yahya Saree did not specify when the strikes took place, but the Houthis often take hours or days to claim responsibility for attacks.

Maj Gen Turki al-Malki, a Saudi military spokesperson, said the attacks struck civilian areas in Khamis Mushait and other nearby cities, injuring 13 civilians and damaging several houses and vehicles. He did not say whether the air base had been hit.

The attacks narrow Saudi export options

The Iran war gouged Saudi oil production, which was down to 6 million barrels per day in August from nearly 10 million in September the previous year, according to the International Energy Agency, a Paris-based intergovernmental group.

After the war began, the East-West Pipeline carried a large majority of Saudi Arabia’s oil exports, according to Rystad Energy. When Houthi attacks in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait started in late July, most of the tankers from the port of Yanbu turned north in the Red Sea toward the Mediterranean, sending their cargo through the Suez Canal or an Egyptian pipeline.

That, however, dramatically increased the time and cost of delivering oil to Saudi Arabia’s main clients in Asia. Also, the Houthis turned to targeting Saudi shipping in the northern Red Sea as well.

The pipeline shutdown threatens to turn off the tap for an extended period.

Rystad Energy said that a monthlong closure would represent a “large disruption” that would see crude deliveries take longer and become more expensive. It said “the market could initially manage it,” but a longer shutdown would “require a major reallocation of global crude flows.”

Thousands of Yemenis are fleeing the fighting

The fighting in Yemen is pushing the impoverished nation back into full-fledged civil war, after a truce that largely maintained quiet since 2022. Even as they advance along the Red Sea, the Houthis have waged an offensive farther inland, particularly in the longtime battleground province of Taiz.

The World Health Organisation said more than 500 people were killed in Yemen in the last week alone, up from nearly 200 a week earlier.

Houthi rebels have made strategic gains in lightning advances, capturing territories previously held by forces of the internationally recognised government. The fighting has also displaced nearly 94,000 people.