{"id":219714,"date":"2026-07-23T12:32:17","date_gmt":"2026-07-23T12:32:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/219714\/"},"modified":"2026-07-23T12:32:17","modified_gmt":"2026-07-23T12:32:17","slug":"houthi-blockade-of-saudi-arabia-could-further-disrupt-global-trade-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/219714\/","title":{"rendered":"Houthi blockade of Saudi Arabia could further disrupt global trade"},"content":{"rendered":"

CAIRO (AP) \u2014 The Houthi rebels\u2019 threat to blockade Saudi Arabia has the potential to widen the Iran war<\/a> and further disrupt global oil supplies and international trade.<\/p>\n

The Iran-backed rebels<\/a> say they have closed the Bab el-Mandeb Strait to Saudi-linked shipping in retaliation for the kingdom\u2019s blockade on Yemen and a recent attack<\/a> on the international airport in Yemen\u2019s rebel-held capital, Sanaa. The Houthis said on Thursday they had attacked two Saudi oil tankers in the Red Sea, causing fires to break out on both. <\/p>\n

Saudi\u2019s state-run news agency reported a fire on a tanker in the Red Sea following an attack, as did the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations Center. No casualties were reported. <\/p>\n

Bab el-Mandeb<\/a>, at the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula, is a vital shipping chokepoint, connecting the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden. Around 12% of the world\u2019s trade, including a fourth of global container traffic, passes through the narrows.<\/p>\n

The strait has become even more vital for Saudi oil exports<\/a> since the disruption of the Strait of Hormuz<\/a> during the Iran war has severely limited shipping out of the Persian Gulf.<\/p>\n

The Houthis had said they would only stop vessels connected to Saudi Arabia or going in and out of its Red Sea ports. But during a similar blockade<\/a> announced against Israel over the war in Gaza, the rebels attacked many vessels with little or no connection to that conflict.<\/p>\n

The threat alone could keep international shippers from using the route.<\/p>\n

Sporadic attacks could largely block the waterway<\/p>\n

The Houthis don\u2019t control the part of Yemen\u2019s coastline along Bab el-Mandeb \u2014 that\u2019s in the hands of its opponents in the country\u2019s civil war. But they hold territory less than 100 kilometers (60 miles) away.<\/p>\n

Three Houthi officials told The Associated Press on Tuesday that the group has planned for months how to disrupt shipping in the strait. Those plans include the use of naval mines, explosive-laden boats, drones and helicopters to allow fighters to board ships, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to media.<\/p>\n

They said vessels would first be warned not to cross designated boundaries in the strait. If ships ignore the warnings, the Houthis would resort to military action.<\/p>\n

In the Strait of Hormuz, Iran has shown that even sporadic attacks on ships can be enough to effectively close a critical waterway, by driving up risks and insurance premiums.<\/p>\n

Global trade could be disrupted at a second chokepoint<\/p>\n

\u201cIf Bab el-Mandeb comes under pressure at the same time as shipping in the Gulf, you have disruption around two of the world\u2019s most important maritime routes at once,\u201d Clionadh Raleigh, the founder of ACLED, a conflict monitoring service, said.<\/p>\n

More than 7 million barrels of petroleum a day transited Bab el-Mandeb in June, compared to around 4 million before the Iran war, Allison Minor, the director of the Atlantic Council\u2019s Project for Middle East Integration, wrote in an analysis published this week.<\/p>\n

Saudi Arabia has been recently exporting some 4 million barrels of oil a day through its Red Sea port of Yanbu, blunting the impact of the Strait of Hormuz closure, which has still rattled economies around the world.<\/p>\n

Saudi Arabia could still get crude to market without using Bab el-Mandeb, by shipping up to 2.5 million barrels a day across the Red Sea to Egypt, whose SUMED pipeline can carry it to the Mediterranean. It could also ship 1 million barrels a day through the Suez Canal.<\/p>\n

International shippers could also reroute around the Cape of Good Hope at the southern tip of Africa, as they did at the height of the war in Gaza. But that means adding one or two weeks to voyages \u2014 and raising costs.<\/p>\n

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Attacks could draw retaliation and reignite Yemen\u2019s war<\/p>\n

The Houthis attacked over 100 vessels at the height of the war in Gaza, before a punishing U.S. and Israeli air campaign put an end to the attacks in early 2025.<\/p>\n

Asked about the attack on the Saudi tanker in the Red Sea on Thursday, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said: \u201cI hope they\u2019ll stop. They shouldn\u2019t really do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Speaking during a regional summit<\/a> in the Philippines, he said that \u201cI think the Houthis, frankly, got snookered into this thing by the Iranians. And they were smart to stay out of it, and they should stay out of it and they should stop.\u201d <\/p>\n

The Houthis also run the risk of reigniting the war with Saudi Arabia and its allies in Yemen, where major fighting ended with a truce in 2022. Saudi Arabia\u2019s military says it will keep Bab el-Mandeb open.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll Houthi threats against transiting vessels will be dealt with swiftly and firmly, as such threats are a blatant violation of international law and fall under acts of maritime piracy,\u201d said Maj. Gen. Turki al-Malki, a Saudi military spokesperson.<\/p>\n

Yemen\u2019s civil war began in 2014 when the rebels seized the capital, Sanaa, and much of northern Yemen, forcing the government into exile. Saudi Arabia led an international coalition fighting the rebels and also imposed an air and sea blockade on Houthi-held parts of Yemen that eased in recent years.<\/p>\n

The Houthis say Saudi Arabia struck the airport in Sanaa earlier this month<\/a> in an attempt to stop a flight carrying Houthi leaders back from Iran, where they had attended the funeral of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.<\/a> The plane landed safely at another airport.<\/p>\n

The Houthis then launched missiles and drones at Saudi Arabia\u2019s Abha International Airport in the most significant confrontation in years.<\/p>\n

The Houthis say closing Bab el-Mandeb to Saudi traffic aims to break the coalition\u2019s blockade.<\/p>\n

Ahmed Nagi, a senior Yemen analyst at the International Crisis Group, said the threat to Saudi Arabia also benefits the Houthis\u2019 ally, Iran, at a time when the U.S. has resumed daily airstrikes.<\/p>\n

\u2033From Iran\u2019s perspective, opening additional pressure points across the region gives it more leverage,\u201d Nagi said. \u201cThe Houthis provide Tehran with influence over one of the world\u2019s most important maritime chokepoints.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2014\u2014<\/p>\n

Al-Haj reported from Aden, Yemen. Associated Press writers Elena Becatoros in Athens, Greece, and Collin Binkley in Washington contributed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CAIRO (AP) \u2014 The Houthi rebels\u2019 threat to blockade Saudi Arabia has the potential to widen the Iran…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":216111,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3],"tags":[719,2371,17246,327,62862,24308,328,1402,777,197,379,1304,34,196,210,9411,2222,50,779,9114,781,82,706],"class_list":["post-219714","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-iran","tag-2024-2025-mideast-wars","tag-2024-2026-mideast-wars","tag-ahmed-nagi","tag-ali-khamenei","tag-allison-minor","tag-blockades","tag-business","tag-drone-surveillance-and-warfare","tag-energy-industry","tag-general-news","tag-houthis","tag-international-trade","tag-iran","tag-iran-war","tag-marco-rubio","tag-oceans","tag-oil-and-gas-industry","tag-saudi-arabia","tag-saudi-arabia-government","tag-tariffs-and-global-trade","tag-waterways","tag-world-news","tag-yemen"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116969311290394361","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219714","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=219714"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219714\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/216111"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=219714"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=219714"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=219714"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}