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Saudi Gazette, citing Iranian state media, reported that the IRGC Navy said three tankers caught fire after hitting mines while attempting to pass through a restricted area, that they had switched off their tracking systems and ignored warnings while trying to leave by "the unauthorised southern route", and that they were abandoned on the southern shore of the strait; the IRGC added that the route "is polluted and the owners and crews of the vessels are responsible", and warned operators to ignore what it called US Central Command's "illusions in cyberspace". UKMTO reported a fire aboard a vessel nine nautical miles north of Khasab in Oman. Vanguard Tech said the tanker was struck by an unknown projectile in the southern corridor at 03:00 UTC on Thursday, that the captain of a Panama-flagged tanker passed it on fire and mostly submerged with another vessel nearby possibly assisting, and that the crew's status was unknown. The same report cited IMO figures of 34 confirmed attacks on vessels between September 28 and October 27, mostly in Hormuz.

On the other strait, Yemen's transport minister Mohsen Haidara Al-Omari announced from the airport that activity returned to normal on Thursday morning after what Yemeni authorities said were two Houthi ballistic missiles on Wednesday injured two civilians and damaged the runway; technical teams began repairs shortly after the attack "despite the risks involved", he said. The internationally recognised government separately called on the UN Security Council to take "deterrent and punitive measures" over the attacks on the airport, and Anadolu dated the government's Dawn of Yemen offensive to October 5, with Rashad Al-Alimi stating its aim as the recovery of state institutions and Sanaa.

The Jerusalem Post reported that Saudi Arabia has asked the Trump administration to "give diplomacy a chance" before the president decides on military action against Iran, quoting one of two regional sources as saying senior Saudi officials asked senior administration officials for "more time", and attributing Riyadh's concern to the prospect of IRGC retaliation against Saudi water, electricity and energy infrastructure. One source said that during the Mecca pact delegation's meetings in Tehran, which the Post said included President Pezeshkian, Foreign Minister Araghchi and Mohsen Rezaei, and Prince Khalid bin Salman on the Saudi side, the Saudis asked Iran to refrain from targeting key oil and gas facilities should the conflict resume, and that the Iranians refused to make such a commitment. The Post also recalled that Iran halted its March attacks on the Kingdom after Riyadh warned it was "crossing a red line".

Reuters set out the Washington end: Trump said Vance's outreach to Iran "is they need help with medical supplies and various things", answered "No" when asked whether he had directed the letter the Wall Street Journal and New York Times said Vance sent to Rezaei to revive talks, and Tasnim reported on Thursday that Tehran had received the letter, had not responded, and considered any position outside its framework "unacceptable". Parliament speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf said progress required Iran's seven conditions, which Reuters listed as including an end to the US port blockade, the lifting of oil sanctions and an end to hostilities on all regional fronts. The Wall Street Journal reported that Admiral Brad Cooper briefed Trump on military options the same day, and Israel's KAN reported, per Anadolu, that ten US military cargo aircraft from Fort Bliss landed at Ovda and Nevatim with others dispatched to Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, that a Patriot system had been moved from Texas to the Gulf, and that a further carrier and Marine unit were expected in November; an Israeli official told KAN no decision had been made.

Anadolu, citing the Saudi Press Agency, reported that the Crown Prince discussed relations and regional and international developments on Thursday in separate calls with the leaders of South Korea, Romania and Spain. With President Lee Jae Myung the two discussed ways to develop cooperation in several fields, and Lee expressed South Korea's condemnation of the Houthi attacks on civilian facilities in the Kingdom. With President Nicusor Dan the readout recorded developments in the region and a review of existing cooperation and ways to strengthen it. With Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, who condemned the attacks and affirmed Spain's "full solidarity", the Crown Prince offered condolences for the victims of the collision of two high-speed trains near Toledo, whose toll Anadolu put at 69 after one of the injured died in hospital on Thursday.

The three calls sit beside Wednesday's ring: Kuwait in Riyadh, Cairo by phone, and the Tehran meeting on Monday that Al Jazeera reported ended with a Fars statement that the four countries "agreed to continue discussions" and a Saudi foreign ministry line on "the importance of opening channels of negotiation to prevent a return to military escalation". None of Thursday's three capitals is a Mecca pact member, a Gulf neighbour or a supplier of the interceptors the Kingdom is expending nightly; two are crude buyers and one, Spain, is a NATO ally whose solidarity was the strongest language of the day.

The facility Reuters described is not an office block in the ordinary sense: it hosts the operations centre from which Aramco oversees onshore and offshore rigs, refineries, export terminals and thousands of kilometres of pipeline. Two of Reuters' sources said operations at the complex continued normally after Tuesday night's fire, with some employees asked to work from home, and a fourth said some functions were shifted to the company's global offices while the fire still burned into Wednesday's early hours. The energy ministry's Shaybah statement on Wednesday was explicit that operations at the field were not affected, that the drone was intercepted and that the only fire was in a vehicle outside the perimeter.

What no Saudi body has addressed is the three Aramco plants in Thursday's Houthi list: a ballistic missile claimed at Ras Tanura, the Kingdom's largest refinery, a missile claimed at Abqaiq and a ballistic missile claimed at Rabigh on the Red Sea coast. The Ras Tanura claim is the second this week to go unanswered, after the one Reuters reported on Tuesday. Reuters' Thursday headline recorded that oil settled lower as diplomacy hopes offset some Middle East supply concerns, which is to say the market read the Vance letter and the Qatari draft as worth more than six Houthi claims; the price itself is not established here.

Reuters reported on Thursday that ExxonMobil and Chevron had cancelled plans for their executives to travel to ADIPEC, the UAE's biggest oil show, next week, citing security concerns, with chief executive Darren Woods and upstream president Clay Neff the two who had been due to attend; both companies declined to comment, ADNOC deferred to the organiser, and DMG's statement said US participation was "very strong" at more than 120 exhibiting companies, the second-largest national representation after China, with record exhibition participation expected from more than 170 countries. DMG's list of confirmed US industry speakers did not include Exxon or Chevron, while the online programme still listed BP's Meg O'Neill and Equinor's Anders Opedal.

Reuters placed the cancellations in a sequence: fears of fresh US attacks on Iran and Iranian retaliation, Trump's statement that no attack would come before November 3 alongside his Friday remark that the US may carry out another operation, the State Department's order last week for some diplomats to leave Saudi Arabia, plans to withdraw family members from other regional missions, and, earlier this month, several top energy executives dropped from the schedule of the WPC Energy Congress in Riyadh, which went ahead despite deadly attacks on the capital. Reuters also linked the Saudi FII's postponement of its flagship conference to 2027. The UAE, Reuters noted, has not been attacked by Iran since May.