Houthis Raise the Stakes: Saudi Shipping Is Next
But Bab el-Mandeb is a different chokepoint entirely: roughly 6.
Houthis Raise the Stakes: Saudi Shipping Is Next
The Houthi militant group in Yemen has threatened to blockade Saudi shipping through the Bab el-Mandeb strait, according to The Guardian, escalating a crisis that has already pushed insurance premiums on Gulf cargo routes to their highest levels in three years.
The threat arrives as US forces continue striking Iranian military infrastructure — the stated aim being to degrade Tehran's capacity to threaten vessels in the Strait of Hormuz. But Bab el-Mandeb is a different chokepoint entirely: roughly 6.2 million barrels of oil pass through it daily, linking the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden and onward to European markets. A credible blockade there would not merely raise fuel costs — it would reroute the global energy supply chain.
Saudi Arabia has not formally responded. Riyadh has spent years calibrating its distance from Washington's confrontations with Tehran, and a direct Houthi threat to its commercial shipping forces a choice the Kingdom has deliberately avoided making.
Per the BBC, US strikes remain focused on Iranian naval capability, framed as defensive operations protecting freedom of navigation. The Houthis, reading the same map, appear to be drawing a second line — one that runs through waters the US has no formal mandate to defend.
The war has two fronts now. One is named. The other is being built in plain sight.
