Yemen‘s Iranian-backed Houthi rebels on Monday announced they’re imposing a maritime embargo against Saudi Arabia in retaliation for a blockade on Yemen and a recent attack on Sanaa International Airport, threatening one other vital waterway for global shipping and raising fears of renewed conflict.
A Houthi military spokesperson, Yahya Saree, said in a video statement that the maritime ban against Saudi Arabia can be effective immediately, describing it as an “equation of ‘an eye fixed for an eye fixed.’”
There have been few details, however the deputy head of the Houthi media office, Nasruddin Amer, said on X that the Bab al-Mandeb strait can be closed in response to what he called Saudi Arabia’s “unjust blockade on Yemenis for over 10 years.”
Bab el-Mandeb, on the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula, is the gateway to the Red Sea through which around 12 per cent of the world’s trade often passes. A fourth of world container trade transits through the 32-kilometer (20-mile)-wide strait to and from the Suez Canal.
The Houthis earlier demonstrated their ability to disrupt shipping there once they targeted ships for months over the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, with over 100 vessels attacked. It’s unclear whether the Houthis will resume that level of attack against neighboring Saudi Arabia.
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There was no immediate response from Saudi Arabia. The dominion already faced pressure because it uses its East-West Pipeline to the Red Sea as an alternative choice to the Strait of Hormuz, which stays within the grip that Iran imposed shortly after the U.S. and Israel attacked it on Feb. 28. The Saudis have been sending hundreds of thousands of barrels of crude oil a day through the pipeline.
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Saudi Arabia leads a coalition against the Houthis and imposed an air and sea blockade on Yemen in 2015. Yemen’s civil war began in 2014 when the rebels seized the capital, Sanaa, and far of northern Yemen and compelled the federal government into exile. A truce was reached in 2022.
That truce has been threatened in recent days after the Houthis said the Saudis struck the Sanaa airport in an try and affect a flight carrying Houthi leaders back from Iran, where they attended the funeral of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The plane landed safely at one other airport.
The Houthis then launched missiles and drones at Saudi Arabia’s Abha International Airport in probably the most significant confrontation in years.
By allowing a direct international flight to land without the approval of the Saudi-led coalition, the Houthis sought to determine a brand new reality by which they may independently make decisions over Yemen’s airspace, experts told the AP.
“We affirm the suitable of our great people to reply to the blockade with a blockade,” Saree emphasized on Monday, adding that Houthis are prepared to confront “any silly act committed by the reckless Saudi enemy … with a comprehensive and decisive escalation.”
The Houthis are an important a part of Iran’s so-called “Axis of Resistance,” which also includes militant groups in Lebanon, Iraq and the Palestinian territories.
The rebels have had a big stockpile of drones, but several Houthi members previously told the AP that the stockpile is running low after its attacks through the Israel-Hamas war. The Iran war has further impeded the flow of weapons, said the members, who on the time spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to consult with the media.
The U.S. and Israel responded to the Houthis’ earlier attacks on shipping with a punishing air campaign across Houthi-held areas in Yemen until a deal that saw the rebels stop their assaults.
Disrupting transit through the Bab al-Mandeb forces shipping firms to route vessels across the Cape of Good Hope, significantly increasing costs.
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