Donald Trump has added Iran “doing drugs” to the list of reasons for starting his unpopular war eight months ago.

​The president has long said the ongoing conflict with the Islamic Republic, which began at the end of February, was launched to prevent Tehran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.

He has also previously hinted at the possibility of regime change in Iran, calling for the Iranian people to overthrow the country’s rulers following protests earlier this year.

Iran’s oil minister has submitted his resignation, state media reported on Sunday.

The high-profile departure comes as Iran grapples with a historic economic crisis, a plunging rial, and severe disruptions to oil exports caused by US sanctions and naval interdictions.

State media did not immediately cite an official reason for the resignation or name a successor, though hardline pressure and internal debates over managing the regime’s crumbling energy sector have escalated sharply in recent weeks.

The minister’s exit marks the highest-level cabinet shakeup in Tehran since the onset of the current conflict, highlighting deep political fractures over Iran’s failing efforts to maintain crude shipments and stabilise state revenues.

The Houthis, officially known as Ansar Allah, are an Iran-aligned political, military movement controlling most of northwestern Yemen and the country’s main population centers.

Originating as a northern revivalist movement in the 1990s against government marginalisation, the group grew into a major combat force under the leadership of Abdul Malik al-Houthi.

In 2014, Houthi forces seized the capital, Sanaa, driving out the internationally recognised government and surviving a subsequent years-long military intervention led by Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

Supported by Tehran with military hardware, drones, and ballistic technology, the Houthis form a key component of Iran’s regional “Axis of Resistance.”

Their recent capture of the strategic Bab el-Mandeb strait and cross-border missile strikes on Saudi oil infrastructure have directly linked Yemen’s internal conflict to the broader regional standoff involving Iran, the US, and Gulf nations.

Ministers and military chiefs from Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Pakistan will hold talks in Riyadh on Monday under the framework of the trilateral Mecca Defence Agreement, Turkey’s Foreign Ministry confirmed on Sunday.

The high-level meeting coincides with the Yemeni government’s launch of a major military campaign to reclaim Houthi-controlled territory and follows recent Houthi missile and drone strikes targeting Saudi economic targets.

Delegates will review regional security developments, discuss alliance institutionalisation, and weigh an Iranian proposal to engage Yemen’s Houthi movement politically to stem further regional escalation.

Houthi forces have captured strategic hilltops near the encircled city of Taiz, threatening to cut off the final remaining transit corridor linking the city to the southern port of Aden.

Military sources have confirmed that Houthi rebels are advancing onto key positions overlooking the primary supply road.

Severing the highway would place Yemen’s third-largest city under a total siege, trapping hundreds of thousands of civilians alongside thousands of entrenched government troops.

The military escalation is compounding an already severe humanitarian crisis in southwestern Yemen. Monitoring by the World Food Programme indicates that nearly 75 percent of households in accessible parts of the region are currently suffering from acute food shortages.

Yemen’s internationally recognised government has announced a comprehensive military campaign aimed at fully recapturing all territory held by the Iran-backed Houthi militia.

In a televised address from Riyadh, Presidential Leadership Council chairman Rashad al-Alimi declared that armed forces will push forward until the country is “liberated from the grip of the terrorist militia.”

Military spokespeople have subsequently issued a demand for Houthi fighters to lay down their arms and surrender.

Supported by Saudi air power and Western intelligence, the assault follows a month of major Houthi gains, including their capture of the strategic Bab el-Mandeb strait along the Red Sea. Yemeni leadership stated the decision to launch the offensive was taken after all diplomatic attempts to de-escalate hostilities were exhausted.

A Department of Energy electrical engineer has been arrested on charges of providing support to the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels, including by buying materials for homemade explosives and drones and traveling to Yemen, the Justice Department said Thursday.

Ashton Hamed Ellaboudy, 51, of Richland, Washington, was arrested Thursday and is due to make his first court appearance Friday. Court records do not list an attorney available to speak on his behalf.

The FBI says Ellaboudy had a goal of helping the Houthis improve their communications capabilities and traveled last September to Yemen, where the Houthis and Saudi-backed government forces are now engaged in renewed violence that has killed hundreds and displaced tens of thousands. The conflict began in 2014 when the Iran-backed rebels took over the capital, Sanaa, forcing the country’s government to settle into exile in Saudi Arabia.

The Tehran regime “target our Jewish communities and try to silence their critics overseas, often through proxies and criminal networks to hide their involvement”, the Home Secretary said.

Iranians Salam Ahmadyan, 36, of Liverpool, and Rahman Salehi, 34, of Salford, who were arrested in Manchester on Sunday, September 20, have been charged on Friday with engaging in conduct in preparation for terrorist acts, contrary to Section 5 of the Terrorism Act 2006, Counter Terrorism Policing (CTP) said.

Negotiations between the US and Iran over an end to the war on the country have been languishing in a stalemate for weeks as both sides remain intransigent about key issues including nuclear development and the situation in Lebanon.

The US is insistent that Tehran surrender its right to ever develop highly enriched uranium and appears to have been manoeuvring to install a government more sympathetic to Western interests.

Meanwhile, Iran has said that it will never agree to a deal that does not ensure the sovereignty of Lebanon and its borders from Israel – with Israeli strikes against Hezbollah in Lebanon continuing – and has insisted on its ability to hold on to some nuclear development capabilities.