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Houthi blockade threat
Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis, who control much of northern and western Yemen including the Red Sea coast, announced a naval blockade on Saudi Arabia on Monday, threatening ships that load or discharge Saudi oil.
“Saudi Arabia on Monday condemned allegations by Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis that Riyadh was imposing a siege on the Yemeni people, after the group announced it would impose a maritime blockade on Saudi Arabia”
U.S. President Donald Trump said the Houthis had not yet shut the Bab el-Mandeb strait, the “Gate of Tears” that connects the southern end of the Red Sea with the Gulf of Aden, and warned, “If something like that happens, we take care of it.”
After the threat, two tankers carrying Saudi crude to China and India reversed course in the Red Sea on Tuesday, heading toward the Suez Canal rather than out through the Bab el-Mandeb and toward the Indian Ocean.
British maritime risk management group Vanguard said the changes were “the first confirmed changes to commercial tanker routing following the [Houthi] embargo” and warned they were “likely to increase disruption to Saudi crude exports and regional shipping patterns.”
Saudi response and routing
Saudi Arabia condemned the Houthi blockade, with the Saudi Foreign Ministry saying it would take “all necessary measures” to protect its ships under the pressure of disruption through the Bab al-Mandeb.
The Houthis said their maritime embargo was “based on the equation of ‘an eye for an eye'” and affirmed “the right of our great people to respond to the blockade with a blockade.”
The Houthis’ warning letter to shipping companies said vessels loading or discharging oil at Saudi ports could be attacked “anywhere within the reach of their forces,” and Reuters reported that the strait had not been closed and that there had been no confirmed attacks on vessels in the Red Sea over the previous 48 hours.
In the same period, the vessels Xin Long Yang and Rodos reversed course after loading Saudi crude at the Red Sea port of Yanbu, and Vanguard described them as the first confirmed changes to commercial tanker routes following the Houthi announcement.
Broader stakes for oil
With the Strait of Hormuz disrupted by the wider U.S.-Iran war, the Red Sea has served as the main alternative route out for Saudi oil diverted by pipeline through Yanbu, and the Houthis’ blockade threat raised the prospect of further diversions.
“The Yemen-based Houthi movement has declared a naval blockade against Saudi Arabia”
The Guardian reported that Trump said the U.S. would respond if the Houthis impose a blockade, while the Houthis’ maritime embargo was framed as a “blockade for blockade” and tied to Saudi “land, sea and air restrictions on Yemen.”
The stakes for shipping were underscored by the reported impact on routing, as tankers altered course toward the Suez Canal rather than through Bab el-Mandeb, and Vanguard warned of “growing disruption to Saudi crude exports and regional shipping.”
In parallel, the conflict’s escalation backdrop included Trump’s renewed threat to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities at Natanz “pretty soon,” and the Houthis’ announcement opened a potential new front in the wider regional conflict involving Iran, Israel and the United States.
