Iran war spreads to the Red Sea and Caspian Sea, US gives up attacks

The war with Iran has escalated over the weekend, despite a pause in US strikes, as Yemen's Iran-backed Houthis attacked Saudi oil facilities along the Red Sea coast, and Iran accused Ukraine of attacking one of its ships in the Caspian Sea.

The US military announced on Saturday that its naval blockade against Iran "remains fully in effect," but did not explain why it had called off a 13-night series of increasingly intense strikes.

Asked by reporters at the White House, Trump said they are holding indirect talks with Iran, and that the country is becoming increasingly serious.

The New York Times reported on Saturday that for the time being, Trump has decided to back off from plans to intensify attacks on Iran.

According to the newspaper, the president and his advisers are concerned that expanding the conflict could deplete US military reserves, alienate Gulf allies in the Middle East, and affect energy supplies and the global economy.

Vice President JD Vance and General Dan Caine, the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, expressed concerns to Trump about US ammunition stockpiles during a meeting at the White House on Friday, a US official told CNN.

Operations have been "temporarily suspended," a Defense Department source told CNN on Saturday.

However, despite the temporary calm in the Gulf region, Saturday's fighting between Iran's Houthi allies and Saudi Arabia showed that the war, which has already disrupted energy supplies through the Strait of Hormuz, could also affect a second important sea route and reignite the civil war in Yemen.

Meanwhile, Iran's Foreign Ministry has accused Ukraine of attacking an Iranian merchant ship in the Caspian Sea, saying one sailor was killed and another was injured.

The ministry summoned the Ukrainian charge d'affaires to Tehran to protest the attack, which it described as "hostile and criminal," the state news agency IRNA reported.

Iran's denunciation coincided with statements by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who said Kiev had noticed that Russia was transmitting satellite data over the Middle East to Iran to help it direct attacks in the region.