US Secretary of State Marco Rubio called Iran the "troublemaker" of the Gulf region and said any attempt by its Yemen proxy Houthi rebels to follow through on their threat to block shipping transit in the Red Sea would be "problematic.""Anything that restricts shipping through the Red Sea would be problematic for the same reasons that the Strait of Hormuz is problematic," Rubio told reporters in the Philippines on July 22 where he was meeting with Asian foreign ministers.The top US diplomat's comments came two days after the Iran-backed Houthis said they would impose a blockade on ships from Saudi Arabia, a key US ally and the world's biggest oil exporter, if they tried to pass through the Red Sea, a move that threatened to raise more pressure on global energy markets.Saudi Arabia has been redirecting millions of barrels of oil from the Persian Gulf to the Red Sea after Iran effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz, which accounted for one-fifth of the world's oil supplies until the start of the US-Israeli war on February 28.
Four oil tankers changed courses in the Red Sea on July 22, according to LSEG and MarineTraffic ship tracking data. A day earlier, three oil tankers carrying Saudi oil to Asia reversed course in the Red Sea, apparently in response to the threats from the Houthis, which control the coast at the mouth of the Red Sea.Rubio accused Iran of playing a central role in the widening tensions in the region, saying Tehran had sent personnel linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) to Yemen."At the gist of that issue is the fact Iran is in the middle of it. You talk about the troublemaker in the region, it's Iran," Rubio told the ministers earlier in the day.
