ToplineAt least seven oil tankers turned around in the Red Sea after facing warnings from the Iranian-allied Houthis in Yemen, Reuters reported, days after the group announced a naval blockade of the Bab al-Mandeb Strait, which could throttle another crucial oil shipping route.The Bab al-Mandeb, the strait dividing Yemen from Africa, seen in a satellite image.Gallo Images via Getty ImagesKey FactsFour oil tankers rerouted away from the Bab al-Mandeb Strait on Wednesday, according to a Reuters report, after three bound for India and China turned around on Tuesday—heading for a much more indirect route through the Suez Canal.On the other side of the Strait in the Gulf of Aden, a vehicle carrier operated by Chinese shipping giant Cosco also turned around after receiving an email from Houthi forces warning it to stop traveling toward Saudi ports according to a report from maritime intelligence firm Lloyd’s List.The Houthis declared a blockade of the Bab al-Mandeb Strait on Monday, days after a previous report indicated the group had deployed missiles and drones near the strait.However, no ships have reported being attacked in the strait or the Red Sea so far.Throughout the first phase of the war, Iran repeatedly suggested it could close the strait—in an English language post on X in April, Ali Akbar Velayati, an adviser to Iran’s new supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei, said the U.S. opposition “views Bab al-Mandeb as it does Hormuz.”Although Iran does not border the Bab al-Mandeb Strait, Yemen does, and Iran is closely allied with the Houthis, the Yemeni militant group that previously conducted dozens of strikes against Israel-linked vessels in the Red Sea in 2023 and 2024 in response to the war in Gaza.Houthis Prepared Blockade To Support IranIran recently asked the Houthis to stand ready to close the Bab al-Mandeb, two senior Iranian sources and one regional source told Reuters last week, should the U.S. begin targeting Iran’s power infrastructure. Another source told the news agency the Houthis deployed missiles and drones that could target ships in the Red Sea and were awaiting orders to begin strikes. President Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened to target Iran’s power plants and other civilian infrastructure, including bridges and desalination plants. The Houthis launched missiles at Saudi Arabia last week after accusing the country of striking an airport in Sana’a, and previously launched strikes against military targets in Israel earlier in the war.Crucial Quote“Today, the unified command of the Resistance front views Bab al-Mandeb as it does Hormuz,” Velayati wrote in April. This could refer to Iran’s “Axis of Resistance,” the loosely aligned groups of militias and other groups supported by Iran, which include the Houthis in Yemen, Hezbollah in Lebanon and Kata’ib Hezbollah in Iraq. “If the White House dares to repeat its foolish mistakes, it will soon realize that the flow of global energy and trade can be disrupted with a single move,” Velayati added.Why Is The Bab Al-Mandeb Strait Important?The closure of the Bab al-Mandeb Strait could further disrupt global trade, blocking yet another chokepoint for the petroleum exporting nations to ship oil and natural gas out of the region. An estimated 4.1 million barrels of petroleum products traveled through the strait per day in 2024, according to the U.S. Energy Information Agency. In comparison, about 20 million barrels traveled through the Strait of Hormuz in 2025, according to the International Energy Agency. The Bab al-Mandeb Strait is one of the alternative routes for petroleum exporters to ship oil to Asia. About 7 million barrels of oil are now shipped to the Saudi Arabian city of Yanbu, a port on the Red Sea, through a pipeline, ABC News reported citing data from maritime intelligence firm Kpler. The oil that reaches Yanbu then transits through the Red Sea and the Bab al-Mandeb Strait. Trump’s blockade of the Strait of Hormuz comes only days after Saudi Arabia announced it restored full pumping capacity through the pipeline to prewar levels—about seven million barrels per day—after the pipeline came under attack from likely Iranian missiles and drones.Key BackgroundThe Houthis have not attacked vessels in the Bab al-Mandeb yet, instead targeting Israel with missiles, but analysts who spoke to Politico and Al Jazeera predicted the group could start targeting ships in the strait, similar to the campaign they undertook in recent years during the Gaza war. Earlier in March, Iran’s state-affiliated Tasnim News Agency quoted an Iranian military source that threatened “insecurity” in the Bab al-Mandeb and Red Sea if the U.S. struck Iran’s Kharg Island. Outside of oil, the Bab al-Mandeb, located on the sea route to Asia after passing through the Suez Canal, sees about 12% of all global trade, the Associated Press reported.