Empty supertankers are turning away from the Persian Gulf in growing numbers, as Iranian and Houthi attacks put at risk a transfer hub that has carried wartime oil flows since the Strait of Hormuz closed in February.

The diversion is the sharpest commercial signal yet of a conflict entering a new phase. On Tuesday, a Saudi-led coalition struck the Yemen Petroleum Company's Sabah central station, a fuel depot on the outskirts of Sanaa, hours after warning civilians to leave the area. Yemen's Iran-allied Houthis said Saudi Arabia was attacking the capital itself.

What did the strikes target?

The coalition said the operation aimed at "neutralizing the capabilities of Houthis" to threaten the kingdom, Yemen and international waterways. It accused the group of using sites in Sanaa, Hodeidah and Dhamar to "supply its arsenal of missiles and drones" against Saudi Arabia and commercial vessels in the Red Sea.

YPC said the Sabah facility held no petroleum stocks at the time and that the strike did not affect oil reserves or supply chains. That claim matters for tanker owners: an intact depot does not, for now, remove Gulf cargo availability.

The risk to energy infrastructure is explicit. Houthi spokesperson Yahya Saree has threatened a "harsh and painful" response to any strikes on Sanaa, naming potential targets including the Saudi Aramco headquarters in Dhahran and an oil refinery in Riyadh. The group has renewed warnings telling oil workers in Saudi Arabia to stay away from sites that could be hit.

How bad is the escalation?

The trigger for the Saudi campaign was the deadliest strike on Saudi soil in a decade. A Houthi ballistic missile hit Riyadh airport on Saturday, killing 13 people and grounding flights across the country — even as the kingdom hosts a major energy conference.

Saudi Arabia resumed military operations in Yemen a week ago to support the internationally recognized government, after the Houthis swept down the Red Sea coast toward the Bab el-Mandeb Strait last month. The strait, the southern gateway to the Red Sea, has carried far more of the world's energy traffic since Iran closed Hormuz at the start of the war in February.

A government offensive has pushed the Houthis back from the area closest to the strait, but the group remains embedded nearby and has made gains around the city of Taiz this month. For carriers routing laden tankers or boxships through the Red Sea, that means the threat to Bab el-Mandeb has eased at the approaches but not disappeared.

Who is backing whom?

Saudi Arabia is courting wider support. Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan told Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Tuesday that Ankara would stand by the kingdom, the Turkish presidency said. Turkey and Pakistan signed a mutual defense pact with Saudi Arabia this summer, though Turkey has yet to ratify the treaty in parliament.

US President Donald Trump also spoke with the crown prince on Tuesday, saying the Houthis were "behaving very badly" and that he may ask Erdogan to intervene. Washington has so far rebuffed Saudi efforts to draw it directly into the war.

Iran, meanwhile, has offered to mediate. Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said on Sunday that Tehran stood ready to broker between Riyadh and the Houthis, a message the ministry repeated on Monday — a striking posture from the rival whose February closure of Hormuz reshaped global energy routes in the first place.

The Saudi cabinet, chaired by the crown prince, said the Houthis would face consequences for their repeated attacks. With tanker owners already voting with their hulls, every further strike on Sanaa or Riyadh raises the odds that Gulf loading capacity and Red Sea transit risk tighten together.