Houthi Terror Group Declares Blockade On Saudi Arabia Amid Iran War
The Houthis, an Iran-aligned terror group based in Yemen, announced Monday they were enforcing a naval blockade against Saudi Arabia in a decision that threatens the global oil trade and heightens the ongoing conflict between the United States and Iran.
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The Houthis said they were launching “a maritime embargo against the criminal Saudi enemy, based on the equation of ‘an eye for an eye’, effective immediately,” according to a statement cited by Reuters.
The rebels said they were responding to what they described as “an unjust and oppressive siege” that Saudi Arabia had forced on Yemen.
The move comes after Iran reportedly told the Houthis to get ready to close the Bab el-Mandeb Strait if the U.S. struck Iran’s power infrastructure. This roughly 20-mile-wide strait, located at the southwestern tip of the Arabian Peninsula, opens into the Red Sea and normally serves as the pathway for about 12% of global trade, according to the Associated Press (AP). Approximately one-fourth of global container trade moves through this strait to and from the Suez Canal.
Saudi Arabia did not immediately respond to the Houthis’ announcement.
If the Houthis completely close the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, most Saudi oil exports would remain trapped in the region, which would decrease the global oil supply by seven percent, according to Reuters. This would amplify the already massive reduction to global oil supply shipments, which are currently down ten percent because of the Iran war.
The Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the U.S. and Iran, which created a temporary ceasefire while negotiations proceeded, crumbled on July 7 with the U.S. reimposing sanctions after reports of multiple tankers being hit.
Both sides have been shooting at each other since.
President Donald Trump recently threatened to damage Iran’s energy infrastructure in an interview with Fox News’s Trey Yingst, saying armed forces would hit energy targets. U.S. airstrikes against Iran involved attacks on bridges, energy sites and other targets, according to the AP.
An Iranian strike Friday killed two U.S. servicemembers and left another missing, although CENTCOM later discovered and is examining unidentified remains of a separate individual. A controlled detonation of unexploded material from a downed Iranian drone took the life of another servicemember Saturday and left another soldier wounded.(RELATED: US Identifies Two Service Members Killed By Iran, Confirms Third Death)
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This is hardly the first time the Houthis have endangered shipping during the Iran War. The rebels announced they would target Israeli shipping in the Red Sea last month.
“We declare a complete and total ban on Israeli maritime navigation in the Red Sea, and we consider all enemy movements to be legitimate military targets for our Armed Forces from the moment this statement is issued,” the Yemen Press Agency said in a June 8 press release.
Yemeni Armed Forces attacks have already made shipping companies much less willing to transit the Red Sea, according to Nils Haupt, spokesperson for Hapag-Lloyd, the Daily Caller News Foundation reports.
“We haven’t passed the Red Sea since [the] end of 2023, when one of our vessels was attacked – and we have no plans to return anytime soon,” Haupt said. “Most of [the] shipping lines still avoid [the] Red Sea and go via [the] Cape of Good Hope.”
Sixty-seven attacks similar to the one Haupt referenced occurred in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden from Nov. 19, 2023, to Sept. 2, 2024, the reported.
In March 2026, an average of 1,034 shipping vessels went through the strait — a decrease of approximately 1,000 from the over 2,000 vessels that went through in September 2023, according to Lloyd’s List Intelligence.
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