Houthis say they won't attack US vessels in Red Sea, and other Mideast developments

A senior Houthi official says the group has assured the Trump administration it won’t attack U.S. vessels in the Red Sea

A senior official with the Iran-backed Houthi rebels said the group has assured U.S. President Donald Trump's administration that it won’t attack U.S. vessels in the Red Sea, even as he warned countries against joining Saudi Arabia in Yemen’s revived civil war.

The comments came as the Houthis fired a ballistic missile at Saudi Arabia's capital over the weekend.

Iran’s top diplomat will stop in Qatar on his way to the United Nations’ annual gathering of world leaders. And the head of the CIA has been in Egypt meeting with its president.

An Israeli was fatally shot in the occupied West Bank , while Israel's military said it killed a man who attempted to ram his vehicle into troops elsewhere in the Palestinian territory.

Here is the latest news from the Middle East on Sunday. Full coverage is available here .

A senior official with the Iran-backed Houthi rebels is warning countries against joining Saudi Arabia in Yemen’s revived civil war, telling The Associated Press on Sunday that his group has assured the Trump administration that it won’t attack U.S. vessels in the Red Sea.

Mohamed al-Bukhaiti, a member of the Houthis’ political bureau, said Washington reached out to the rebels after their rapid advance down Yemen’s western coast to the Bab el-Mandeb Strait earlier this month.

“We confirmed that we are not targeting the United States, or any other nation, in the strait, with the sole exception of the Saudi enemy,” he told The Associated Press in a Zoom interview from the rebel-held Yemeni capital, Sanaa. “That remains the case.”

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi will stop briefly in Qatar before going to New York for the U.N. General Assembly, the state-run IRNA news agency reported.

Tehran has said it is awaiting a U.S. response to conditions it conveyed through Qatar for ending the war . Iran’s Supreme National Security Council chief Mohsen Rezaei told Al Jazeera on Saturday the conditions include ending the war on all fronts, releasing Iranian assets seized by the U.S. and ending the U.S. naval blockade of Iranian ports.

Araghchi is among Iran’s senior officials given visas by Washington to attend the U.N. gathering, along with President Masoud Pezeshkian, despite the war.

Central Intelligence Agency Director John Ratcliffe was in Egypt meeting with President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, the president’s office said.

The statement said el-Sissi expressed support for a deal to resolve the Iranian crisis and ensure the freedom of shipping navigation. He also rejected any aggression against Arab countries. Last week, Egypt’s president hosted Saudi Arabia’s crown prince, who was seeking support against attacks by neighboring Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels .