An airstrike on July 13 hit the runway of Yemen's Sanaa airport, preventing an Iranian flight carrying a high-ranking Houthi delegation from landing.

The Houthis fired on the southern Saudi region of Najran last week and on Saudi Aramco’s Jazan refinery on Sunday.

The civil war in Yemen that began in 2014 eventually pitted Iran-backed Houthi rebels against a Saudi-led coalition supporting the country's government.

On one side of the Arabian Peninsula, diplomats are working to reopen a waterway. On the other, missiles threaten to close one.

While the Middle East waits to hear whether a deal can be reached to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, the Yemeni government’s conflict with Iran-backed Houthi rebels escalated overnight.

Saudi Arabia expects imminent co-ordinated attacks from Iraqi militias north of the Persian Gulf state and from Yemen's Houthis from the south under the supervision of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps,

The Middle East war is widening as Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels launch a spate of attacks on United States’ allies and close yet another key shipping waterway.

The Houthi attacks — including one in northeastern Yemen on Friday morning — come weeks after the rebels declared a blockade on Saudi-linked ships leaving the strait in retaliation for a yearslong Saudi siege on Yemen and recent attacks on the Houthi-controlled capital.