- Iran asked Houthis to close Bab el-Mandeb if US attacks.
- Houthis are prepared to attack Red Sea commercial shipping.
- Closure threatens global energy supply, increasing economic pressure.
- Saudi Arabia monitors threats, fearing Iran-Houthi coordination.
Iran has asked Yemen’s Houthi movement to be ready to shut the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, the gateway to the Red Sea, if the United States attacks Iranian power infrastructure, Reuters reported on Thursday, citing three sources familiar with the discussions.
The proposal has been discussed within Iran’s leadership and conveyed to the Tehran-backed Houthis, although it remains unclear whether the message was sent before or after US President Donald Trump’s warning on Tuesday that Washington could target Iran’s power infrastructure, the report stated, citing two senior Iranian sources and a regional source.
Houthis Said To Be Ready To Target Shipping
A source close to the Houthis told Reuters the group had completed preparations to attack commercial shipping by deploying missiles and drones near the Bab el-Mandeb Strait and was awaiting orders to begin operations.
The report also said representatives of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), already present in Yemen, would determine when any closure of the strategic waterway should take place.
The development comes after the Houthis fired missiles at Saudi Arabia this week, accusing Riyadh of carrying out an airstrike on an airport under their control, ending a four-year truce between the two sides.
ALSO READ: Trump In A Coffin, ‘We Will Kill Trump’: Iran’s New Billboard At Tehran’s Enghelab Square
Fresh Threat To Global Energy Supplies
The reported plan raises the possibility of simultaneous disruptions to the Middle East’s two key oil export routes after Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz following the outbreak of conflict with Israel and the United States in late February.
Since then, a significant share of Gulf oil exports has been diverted through Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea port of Yanbu via an east-west pipeline. Any disruption at Bab el-Mandeb would threaten one of the few remaining alternative export routes and could intensify the global energy crisis.
The Red Sea now carries about seven percent of global energy supplies, making it one of the few remaining alternatives for Gulf producers.
Analysts warn that attacks on shipping or energy infrastructure along the route would have consequences well beyond the region.
Torbjorn Soltvedt, principal Middle East analyst at risk intelligence firm Verisk Maplecroft, said the renewed confrontation between the Houthis and Saudi Arabia came at a particularly sensitive time.
“If fighting intensifies and spills over into Red Sea export infrastructure and shipping, it will threaten the only major alternative route for oil exports from the region,” he told Reuters.
ALSO READ: ‘I Salute Sonam Wangchuk’: Arvind Kejriwal, Dimple Yadav Joins CJP Protest, Urges Youth To Join March
Saudi Arabia Monitoring Developments
Regional sources told Reuters that Saudi Arabia was taking the threats seriously and believed the Houthis were coordinating closely with Tehran over the future of Red Sea shipping.
Iran’s leadership viewed the threat to the Red Sea as a way of increasing economic pressure on Washington by raising the potential cost to global trade and energy markets, the report said.
The closing the Bab el-Mandeb Strait would not require sophisticated weaponry.
“Anybody with a firing rifle can interrupt the shipping. You don’t have to have sophisticated missiles to interrupt the shipping,” Reuters quoted its source as saying.
Iran considers the Houthis part of its regional “Axis of Resistance”, alongside Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Iraqi Shi’ite armed groups. The United States has long accused Tehran of supplying the Houthis with weapons, funding and training, an allegation Iran denies
