Yemen rebels in maritime blockade of Saudi Arabia
Tuesday, 21 July 2026
Middle East
Iranian-backed rebels in Yemen have announced a maritime blockade of Saudi Arabia, a move that could complete Tehran's stranglehold on regional oil shipments.
The Houthis, the group that controls swathes of northern Yemen, declared the blockade after the ceasefire with Saudi Arabia from 2022 fell apart in recent weeks.
The move could increase pressure on oil prices if the rebels follow through with closing the Bab al-Mandeb Strait on the Red Sea while Iran effectively blocks the Strait of Hormuz. Saudi Arabia had diverted millions of barrels of oil to a Red Sea port after Tehran closed off Hormuz in March.
Analysts suggest that Iran asked the Houthis to close the Red Sea to shipping if the US escalated its attacks, after a ceasefire last month unravelled over the past two weeks, with Iran resuming its attacks on shipping in the strait.
Iranian and Houthi officials had repeatedly hinted that they would enforce a blockade in the Red Sea should the conflict with the US escalate.
In a statement that made no mention of Iran, a Houthi spokesman said Saudi Arabia had continued to blockade Yemen even after the ceasefire in 2022 which ended a devastating Saudi-led military intervention. The Houthis declared a “maritime blockade against the criminal Saudi enemy based on the equation of an eye for an eye”.
The longstanding tensions between the Houthis and Saudi Arabia erupted this month after the Saudi airforce bombed a runway in the capital Sanaa to prevent an Iranian plane from landing. The Houthis targeted an airport in Saudi Arabia in response.
The Houthis, who are armed by Iran but operate autonomously, want to avoid attracting US strikes in a repeat of the aerial campaign last year that severely damaged their military infrastructure. The US campaign came after Houthi attacks on shipping in the Red Sea in support of Hamas in Gaza.
Back then, the Houthis had virtually closed the Bab el-Mandeb strait to shipping that accounts for more than 10% of the world's container traffic. But they held off from supporting their patrons after they came under attack by the US and Israel in February.
Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for the UN secretary-general, warned that the threat from the Houthis risked an “even wider” regional conflict.
Michael Stephens, a senior associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute, said: “Iran held certain cards it could play in reserve … it now appears that Iran is playing one of its most important cards. This brings even more urgency to solving what appears to be an unsolvable stand off,” he added.
Both the US and Iran have said they no longer consider the ceasefire in force. President Donald Trump warned Iran yesterday it would pay “many times over” for every US soldier killed after three died in Tehran's retaliatory strikes and one more was announced as missing.