Dozens of South Koreans urged their government on Wednesday not to deploy troops to the strategic Strait of Hormuz. The protesters across from the U.S. embassy compound in Seoul waved signs saying "Do not join a war of aggression" as the country's leaders weigh a "contribution" to the waterway's security. "We cannot send our young people into a sea of death!" chanted the protesters on the steps outside Seoul's Sejong Center for the Performing Arts.
The protest came a day after South Korean defence authorities said they had sent a fact-finding mission to assess the situation in Hormuz, while stressing that no decision had been made on any deployment. South Korea said Friday it was considering "contributions" to U.S. security efforts along the strait provided that its own military readiness was not compromised. Iran has warned that any South Korean deployment would be "regarded as direct support for the party responsible for that aggression and will have serious consequences." Yemen's Iran-backed Houthis reported more than 30 Saudi strikes on several regions on Wednesday, a day after the rebels launched major attacks on their neighbor, injuring dozens of people.
There has been no official comment from Saudi Arabia about the Houthi report. Saudi authorities previously said that Houthi attacks caused temporary shutdowns at oil sites and injured 73 people early Tuesday. The rebels reported Saudi airstrikes following the attacks.
Deadly fighting reignited in Yemen last week, when the Houthis launched a major campaign to seize territory near the Bab al-Mandab strait. The strait has become an increasingly important route for Saudi oil since Iran effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz, choking Gulf exports. The price of Brent crude, the international benchmark for oil, was trading at over $99 early Wednesday, in a continuation of the upward trend seen since August.
Meanwhile, the benchmark U.S. crude rose 1.2% to $94.17 a barrel. Before the war began in February, a fifth of the world's oil flowed through the Strait of Hormuz but since then, traffic has plummeted, with only small periods of temporary and limited recovery. Iran has launched missiles toward U.S. targets in Jordan, Iranian state-run media said, following the latest American strikes.
It's the latest tit-for-tat retaliation after the U.S. military said it destroyed five Iranian crude oil tankers following two attacks on a U.S. warship by Iran's Revolutionary Guard over the past two days. Central Command, when asked about the strikes on the Jordanian air base, said it had no information to offer. Jordan's military said its air defense systems intercepted 18 ballistic missiles launched toward its territory and two others fell in places where people do not live.
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