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Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, faced two air-raid warnings in the early hours of today, September 19, marking the first time the country's capital has seen such alerts since the period when war between the United States and Iran intensified in March and April. Saudi Arabia's early-warning system issued an emergency alert in Riyadh at 4:00 a.m. and again at 6:00 a.m., without disclosing further details. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia's civil defense authority said the danger had ended shortly after both alerts. Other areas across the country received similar warnings throughout the past night, including Jeddah and Yanbu on the Red Sea, as well as Farasan Island in the Red Sea. The warnings came amid a new wave of attacks Saudi Arabia has faced in September, with the Iran-backed Houthis based in Yemen striking cities in western Saudi Arabia, including energy infrastructure, over the past week. The Saudi government said a drone attack from Iraq, home to several Iran-backed armed groups, forced the East-West oil pipeline to halt operations. In addition, attacks on the pipeline and Iran's closure of the Strait of Hormuz have sharply reduced Saudi Arabia's oil exports and created further problems for Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the kingdom's leader. The renewed conflict also risks affecting Saudi Arabia's efforts to attract investment and tourists, part of its push to diversify the country's economic structure. In October, Riyadh is scheduled to host Saudi Arabia's flagship investment conference, the Future Investment Initiative, with the 2026 annual gathering set to welcome several senior Wall Street executives, including JPMorgan Chase & Co CEO Jamie Dimon and David Solomon of Goldman Sachs Group.

US President Donald Trump told reporters on the evening of Wednesday, September 16, that he hopes the war with Iran, now dragging into its seventh month, is nearing an end, saying Iran wants a deal and that he had been contacted directly by Iran, though he did not disclose further details. The remarks came amid escalating tensions after the Saudi Arabian air force launched strikes in Yemen and Houthi rebels retaliated by firing missiles and sending drones to attack various Saudi cities, including the Red Sea oil port of Yanbu and the Khamis Mushait air base in the south, according to a statement by Yahya Saree, spokesman for the Houthi military. The war erupted on February 28, when the United States and Israel launched attacks on Iran, before Tehran fired back at Israel and US bases in the Persian Gulf countries. The attack on Saudi Arabia that damaged the East-West oil pipeline has prompted oil traders to warn that if the pipeline is forced to halt shipments for an extended period, as much as 4% of global oil supply could be lost. Saudi authorities have not yet specified when the pipeline will be able to resume operation. The spread of the war into Yemen is also compounding the global energy shortage, after the earlier conflict cut off shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, which once carried one-fifth of the world's crude oil and liquefied natural gas. As a result, Brent crude traded at around 108 dollars a barrel on Wednesday, near its highest level since May, while US retail diesel prices surged to a record high of more than 6.30 dollars a gallon, which is becoming major political pressure on the Republican Party ahead of the midterm elections in November. Axios reported, citing sources, that President Trump is scheduled to meet with leaders of the Gulf Cooperation Council, or GCC, which comprises Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait and Oman, on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York next Tuesday, September 22, to discuss the next steps in the war with Iran. The conflict between the Saudi-led alliance and the Houthis, which has been underway since 2015 and had once calmed under a ceasefire agreement, flared up violently again after the Houthis declared a maritime blockade on Saudi Arabia last July.