Yemen-based group threatens Saudi oil exports and global trade as regional conflict intensifies
Nayera Abdullah, Eman Abouhassira And Timur Azhari
Dubai/Riyadh: Yemen’s pro-Iran Houthis have said they would impose a naval blockade on Saudi Arabia, opening a potential new front against the United States in its war with Iran and increasing the threat to global energy supplies and trans-Gulf trade.
The Houthis made the announcement despite signs that Tehran and Washington want to restart diplomacy to halt a worsening cycle of attacks that has all but destroyed the fragile interim agreement signed last month.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry said mediators had made “offers” to Tehran, signaling that diplomatic contacts remained active, but did not provide details.
Oil prices rose briefly after the Houthi statement, but then fell back as traders held out hope for a diplomatic breakthrough. The cost of insurance for shipping goods across the Red Sea has increased due to increasing risks to commercial shipping.
Iran has been pressuring the Houthis to close the Bab al-Mandeb gate to the Red Sea if the United States continues to attack Iranian energy infrastructure.
Completely closing the Bab al-Mandeb Strait would reduce global oil supplies by 7 percent as it would prevent most Saudi oil exports from leaving the region. The disruption would compound the massive disruption in oil flows caused by the war in the Gulf, which has cut shipments by 10 percent of global supply.
The Houthis’ armed forces said in a statement that they had declared “a naval embargo with immediate effect against the guilty Saudi enemy, based on the ‘eye for an eye’ equation” in response to what they called the “unfair and oppressive siege” imposed by the Saudis on Yemen.
There was no immediate response from Saudi Arabia.
A senior Iranian official told Reuters on Monday (Iran time) that Tehran has received a 10-day ceasefire offer from mediators as part of efforts to salvage an interim agreement aimed at paving the way for a permanent agreement to end the war that began with US-Israeli attacks on Iran on February 28.
Neither the ministry nor the official who spoke to Reuters gave any details about possible ceasefire talks. Iranian Interior Minister Eskandar Momeni has asked Pakistan to continue its mediating role in the conflict, two Pakistani government sources said separately. He later came to Islamabad for further talks.
The diplomatic move came after another night of US attacks on Iranian cities and attacks by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard against US military assets in the region.
US President Donald Trump, who is under increasing political pressure at home due to rising oil prices since the start of the war and Iran’s effective closure of the vital Strait of Hormuz, has defended the latest attacks on Iran as honoring the deaths of up to three American soldiers in Iran’s recent attacks.
The two U.S. Army soldiers killed in Iranian attacks on Jordan were identified Monday as First Lieutenant James Feehan, 25, of Ewa Beach, Hawaii, and Private Isabella Gonzales, 19, of Carrollton, Texas, as killed in Jordan in Friday’s attacks.
An American soldier was also killed in northern Iraq on Saturday during a “controlled explosion” of unexploded ordnance from a downed Iranian drone.
“Every time Iran kills an American Soldier, it will pay for that murder, over and over again! This directive has been forwarded to Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Daniel Caine, and all Leaders in the Army,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Monday.
The war has killed thousands of people, mostly in Iran and Lebanon, some of which are occupied by Israeli forces, following attacks on Israel by Hezbollah fighters who say they are acting in solidarity with Tehran.
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun will meet Trump at the White House on Tuesday to present a plan on how to disarm Iran-allied Hezbollah and ensure Israel’s withdrawal.
Israel still has forces in Gaza after a two-year war that began with an attack on southern Israeli communities by the Palestinian militant group Hamas on October 7, 2023. Hamas said on Monday it had chosen top negotiator Khalil al-Hayya as its overall leader. This move, one analyst said, could signal that the group will take a tougher stance against calls for disarmament.
US Central Command said the ninth consecutive night attacks against Iran were aimed at weakening Iran’s ability to attack commercial ships in the strait. The US military also said it had redirected seven commercial ships and disabled one as part of a US naval blockade of Iranian ports.
Explosions were reported in Tabriz, Chabahar, Konarak, Bandar Mahshahr and Bandar Imam Khomeini in Iran. One person was killed and several others were injured southwest of Tabriz, according to state news agency IRNA.
The Revolutionary Guard said it targeted US aircraft at Jordan’s Aqaba airport with ballistic missiles, as well as military assets at Kuwait’s Al-Adiri camp and Ali Al Salem Air Base, and positions in Syria. Sirens blared in Bahrain throughout Monday. The Kuwaiti army announced that it had seized Iranian unmanned aerial vehicles once again.
Reuters
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