The Houthis have announced a maritime embargo against Saudi Arabia in retaliation for a blockade on Yemen and a recent attack on Sanaa International Airport, threatening another vital waterway for global shipping and raising fears of renewed conflict.
The announcement of a maritime embargo comes after the two sides traded fire last week for the first time in years. The Houthis blamed Saudi Arabia for strikes on Sanaa airport last week and retaliated by targeting Saudi’s Abha International Airport.
A Houthi military spokesperson, Yahya Saree, said in a video statement, “The rebels “declare a maritime embargo against the criminal Saudi enemy, based on the equation of ‘an eye for an eye,’ effective immediately upon the issuance of this statement.”
Without giving details, the Deputy Head of the Houthi media office, Nasruddin Amer, said on X that the Bab al-Mandeb strait will be closed in response to what he called Saudi Arabia’s “unjust blockade on Yemenis for over 10 years.” Bab el-Mandeb, at the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula, is the gateway to the Red Sea through which around 12% of the world’s trade usually passes.
A fourth of global 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 when they targeted ships for months over the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, with over 100 vessels attacked. It is unclear whether the Houthis will resume that level of attack against neighboring Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Arabia already faces pressure as it uses its East-West Pipeline to the Red Sea as an alternative to the Strait of Hormuz, which remains in the grip that Iran imposed shortly after the U.S. and Israel attacked it on Feb. 28. The Saudis have been sending millions of barrels of crude oil a day through the pipeline.
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 much of northern Yemen and forced the 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 attempt to 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 another airport.
Houthis Express ‘Complete Readiness For All Options’
Moreover, Houthi military Spokesman, Yahya Saree said that the continued blockade of Yemen’s Sanaa airport “is unacceptable and cannot be tolerated.” Saree vowed to retaliate “to the blockade with a blockade and to respond to all escalation with escalation.”
Saree emphasized that the Yemeni Armed Forces “affirm their complete readiness for all options and any foolish act committed by the reckless Saudi enemy … with a comprehensive and decisive escalation.”
“We call upon the people of our great nation to continue the general mobilization and general call to arms, and to be fully prepared for all scenarios and developments, and to support the fronts with fighters.”
Yahya Saree
The Houthis are a crucial part of Iran’s so-called “Axis of Resistance,” which also includes militant groups in Lebanon, Iraq and the Palestinian territories.
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 around the Cape of Good Hope, significantly increasing costs.
Meanwhile, Zeidon Alkinani, Founding Director of the Arab Perspectives Institute, opined that the Houthis appear to be using the announcement of a maritime embargo targeting Saudi Arabia to “redraw the rules” while regional powers are under pressure.
The analyst told a news agency that there is “very clear” messaging in the announcement.Alkinani noted that there was “no mention of Iran” suggesting the Houthis are acting to exploit what they see as a window of opportunity while both Saudi Arabia and the United States are pre-occupied with Iran. “They’re taking it as an opportunity to redraw the rules imposed on them before,” he said.
He added that negotiations with the Houthis could be “easier” than talks involving either the US or Iran, which remain in direct confrontation. “From a Houthi perspective they are controlling Yemen, which is in the GCC orbit,” he said. Alkinani said that direct negotiations with the Houthis would now make sense.
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