Exclusive-Iran tells Houthis to close Red Sea gateway if US hits power network, sources say
Written by: Parisa Hafezi, Samia Nakhoul and Jonathan Saul
DUBAI, July 16 (Reuters) – Iran has asked Yemen’s Houthi movement to be ready to block the Red Sea oil route if the United States attacks Iran’s energy infrastructure, three sources told Reuters on Thursday, posing a powerful new threat to global energy supplies.
The idea was discussed within the Islamic Republic’s leadership, and the message was conveyed to Iran’s Houthi allies, two senior Iranian sources and a regional source familiar with the matter.
Sources said the Houthis were recently informed of Tehran’s previously unreported request.
They did not provide further details on how it was conveyed or whether it followed U.S. President Donald Trump’s threat to attack Iran’s energy infrastructure on Tuesday.
Iran’s foreign ministry and a spokesman for the Houthi group were not immediately available to respond to a Reuters request.
SOURCE SAYS Houthis PLACED DRONES NEAR BAB AL-MANDEB
A source close to the Houthis said that the group has completed its preparations to attack ships by deploying missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles near the Bab al-Mandeb strait, which is the gateway to the Red Sea, and in Yemen’s mountainous regions overlooking Hodeidah and the Gulf of Aden, and is waiting for the order to start.
Any threat to the Red Sea and its Bab al-Mandeb passage risks greatly exacerbating the global energy crisis triggered by Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz, underscoring the explosive risks from a new round of war.
With the Strait of Hormuz currently closed, any Houthis attack on ships or ports in the Red Sea would cause simultaneous disruption of the Middle East’s two main oil export routes and open a new front in both the energy crisis and Iran’s broader conflict with the United States.
A source close to the Houthis said that the decision on when to close the Bab al-Mandeb Strait will be controlled by representatives of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), who are already in Yemen.
In a sign of rising tensions in the region, the Houthis fired missiles at Saudi Arabia on Monday, accusing the kingdom of bombing an airport under their control, breaking a four-year ceasefire in the conflict between the kingdom and the group.
Torbjorn Solvedt, chief Middle East analyst at risk intelligence firm Verisk Maplecroft, said the flare-up between the Houthis and Saudi Arabia comes at a bad time.
“If the fighting intensifies and spreads to the Red Sea’s export infrastructure and shipping, it will threaten the only significant alternative route for oil exports from the region,” he said.
Two regional sources close to Riyadh said the kingdom takes threats from Iran and the Houthis very seriously, adding that Riyadh is aware that the Yemeni group is now in close coordination with Iran on the Red Sea issue.
The conflict began on February 28 when Israel and the United States attacked Iran, prompting Tehran to close the Strait of Hormuz, which before the war was the main route for about a fifth of global energy supplies.
Tensions have soared since the collapse of a fragile ceasefire signed between Tehran and Washington in June, reigniting fears of full-scale war and disrupting energy flows across the Strait.
SOURCE SAYS THE RED SEA IS NOT DIFFICULT TO CLOSE
Since then, a significant portion of Gulf oil has been diverted to the Red Sea via the Saudi pipeline, and the waterway now carries around 7% of global energy supply.
When the Houthis attacked shipping during the Gaza war, major shipping companies diverted their cargo to the much longer, more expensive route around Africa.
While Saudi Arabia routes 70 percent of its energy exports through the Red Sea port of Yanbu, any direct attack would also pose a major problem for oil markets.
One regional source said Iran’s religious rulers are trying to pressure the United States by increasing the potential cost to the global economy, threatening Red Sea shipping and the flow of Saudi oil exports through the waterway, in what the source described as part of “Iranian thinking.”
Saying that it would not be difficult to close the strait, the source added: “Anyone with a firearm can block the transportation. You do not need to have advanced missiles to stop the transportation.”
Iran sees the Houthis as part of the regional “Axis of Resistance,” an alliance that also includes Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Shiite armed groups in Iraq that have already joined the regional conflict between Tehran and Washington.
However, Houthi rebels did not officially join the fight.
The United States says Iran is providing weapons, financing and training to the Houthis, including support through Hezbollah. Tehran denied the accusation.
(Reporting by Parisa Hafezi in Dubai, Samia Nakhoul in Beirut, Mohammed Ghobari in Aden, Jonathan Saul in London Writing by Parisa Hafezi, Editing by William Maclean)
