Yemen's Tehran-backed Houthis on Monday announced they are imposing 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.
A Houthi military spokesperson, Yahya Saree, said in a video statement that the maritime ban against Saudi Arabia will be effective immediately, describing it as an "equation of 'an eye for an eye.'"
The Houthis did not specify how the embargo would be enforced, but the deputy head of the Houthi media office, Nasruddin Amer, said on X that the Bab el-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 — whose name means "Gate of Tears" in Arabic — 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-kilometre-wide strait to and from the Suez Canal.
A closure would force vessels to take the much longer route around the Cape of Good Hope, adding two to three weeks to journeys between Asia and Europe and sharply increasing shipping costs.
